Business Letters
Power saving at tea factories and the other side of hype
There seems to be a sudden and urgent hype for power savings at tea
factories by the holding of seminars and programmes by several with
vested interest in the tea industry in the likes of the Tea Research
Institute of Sri Lanka, the Plantation Development Project, the Private
Tea Factory Owner’s Association, the National Power Authority, the Sri
Lanka Planters’ Association, the Energy Conservation Fund, National
Power Authority and even the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce.
A system was patented in the early part of 2000 and offered to the
entire decision making bodies of all the end users and beneficiaries of
this sector, which at that time as is usual in Sri Lanka was not looked
at in a positive manner mainly due to the lack of understanding and
concern on the part of the main decision makers.
Their lack of foresight and scant concern for the escalating cost of
global power and the negative impact it
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A tea factory in Ramboda. Picture by Saliya Rupasinghe |
was certain to play in their
future COP was staggering and beyond comprehension.
Polylanka Limited were the pioneers who were the first in Sri Lanka
to install and successfully operate the Polydrive Power system
incorporating a VSD at the Deenside Tea Factory in Gampola in 1999/2000.
Only a single plantation company at that time led by a dynamic CEO
and a single large scale privateer both who had the foresight and wisdom
to install our systems to their entire chain of factories are today
reaping the benefits long after paying off their investments whilst the
rest seem to be still looking for solutions and avenues at this late
stage and in the process spending large sums of money and wasting
precious time said Mr. Deen.
The very fact that the TRI tried and tested this system and
eventually installed it at their own St Coombs Tea Factory at
Talawakelle as far back as 2002 and is still reaping its benefits speaks
volumes for itself.
The irony is that since the year 2001 to date the majority of the
decision makers in the industry do not seem to be able to comprehend,
nor have faith and accept several reports published on this system by
the TRI, when repeatedly presented to them, which is a sad state of
affairs in the long term interests of the industry.
The changing of the fan as mentioned at several quarters is only part
of the solution and the recommended fibreglass fans have proven to be a
failure as far back as 2000 in India where it was first tried and
tested. It does not withstand the heat and pressure factors on the long
run as is prevalent at our factories.
Merely and haphazardly hooking up a VSD as advocated by many is also
no solution at all and the sight of the dozens of burnt out poor quality
VSD’s he has seen at several factories in the up-country, mid and
low-country should also be an eye opener to the concerned decision
makers that there are no cheap shortcuts in the field of electronics and
electrics in the long run.
Why go for a halfway and short-term solution in the interests of a
National Industry when a proven and long term solution is available.
Polydrive Power Systems several years ago put together a system for
large scale power saving in the rubber sector after trials at several
factories including the Rubber Research Institute’s Dartonfield factory
at Agalawatta, but abandoned the project due to the lack of interest by
the common decision makers who happen to be from the tea sector.
Several detailed reports of national importance were presented to the
string of Power and Energy and Plantation Ministers in office since 2002
including the present in regard to the large scale power saving
potential in the tea manufacturing sector which have fallen by the
wayside as is usual in Sri Lanka.
These are lost opportunities for our country which can never be
regained and whilst other countries are forging ahead in the application
of new technology Sri Lanka was sadly lagging behind not due to the
dearth of talent or lack of opportunity but due to the wrong people and
poor decision makers being in the right places.
Kiyaz Deen
MD, Polylanka Limited,
Colombo |
