With solar and dendro power:

Ministry to expects reach target

Chamikara WEERASINGHE

The Power and Energy Ministry is set to reach its ‘Electricity for All by 2012’ target with solar and dendro power stations to be constructed in remote villages that have not been served by the national grid.

Ceylon Electricity Board sources said some 4,593 rural electrification schemes will be constructed during the next two years.

Power and Energy Minister Champika Ranawaka yesterday said all rural households that cannot be economically connected to the National Grid, will be provided with alternative electrical energy sources under the Ceylon Electricity Board’s Rural Energy Program. .

The Ministry has taken steps to increase its bio-mass power (dendro power ) generation to the national grid from 11 MW to 100 MW under the program,he said. Ranawaka Monday promised the public in Batticaloa that the Power and Energy Ministry will provide electricity to all households in the district adding that he has already taken measures to construct solar and dendro power stations in the district. He will open a rural power project tomorrow in Anuradhapura, providing electricity to some 100 houses in a farmer village in Moragoda.

With the introduction of Solar and dendro power plants, the Ministry can reach its target of providing “Electricity for All by 2012,” he said.

According to the Minister, Sri Lanka has met 87 per cent of its electricity demand by now.

“We have already commenced the necessary power generation schemes to meet the total demand within the next couple of years,” he said.

Ranawaka said dendro power schemes have great potential to meet the energy needs of off-grid villages in the Batticaloa district.

They will also provide farmers in off-grid villages an opportunity to earn additional income by providing gliricidia plants to the CEB to produce dendro power. The CEB will be able to purchase low cost energy, he explained.

Ranawaka told CEB engineers in Batticaloa that 93,000 electricity consumers in the district will be provided with electricity from the dendro Power Stations to be established in the district.

This will help the CEB to run its operations with reduced costs and also help the CEB minimize its losses.

The CEB is expected to become a profit making institute with the energy reforms introduced by the Ministry.