Saving electricity today for a better tomorrow!

Nalaka Gunawardene and Vindana Ariyawansa

Sinhabahu

This year’s Earth Hour will be observed worldwide on Saturday March 31, 2012. That evening, millions of businesses and households will voluntarily switch off some or most night lights from 8.30 to 9.30 pm local time.

Earth Hour is an annual event to raise awareness on saving energy and taking personal action to mitigate climate change. It started in Australia in early 2007, and has grown into a really global event. In 2011, it took place in a record 5,251 cities and towns in 135 countries and territories, reaching an estimated 1.8 billion people.

Earth Hour is largely symbolic: while we cannot save enough electricity in an hour to make a change in planetary energy consumption, it reminds us of the need to conserve energy whenever and wherever possible.

This is important as Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Power and Energy is calling for conserving electricity. “Switch off a bulb at your home during peak hours and save electricity,” they urge all consumers.

Today, we start off with a few questions on power generation and use in Sri Lanka.

1. A private firm, Boustead Brothers Limited, first introduced electricity generation to Ceylon in 1895. They brought diesel generators from England and supplied electricity to few mercantile firms in Colombo. This was just 14 years after Godalming and Brighton in the United Kingdom (UK) became the first cities in the world to receive a public supply of electricity. Where in Colombo was their first power station located?

2. Engineer D J Wimalasurendra (1874 – 1953) is the Father of Hydro Electricity in Sri Lanka. He was the first to recognise the hydro power potential of Sri Lanka’s surface water bodies, and also the first to articulate that vision in technical terms.

He initiated the island’s first mini hydro power plant in 1912 at Black Pool, Nuwara Eliya, raising awareness on the potential of hydro power. That first mini hydro power plant used the water from which body of water?

3.Sri Lanka’s first major hydro electricity power plant, envisaged and designed by Engineer D J Wimalasurendra, commenced work in 1924, but was then suspended in 1927 due to unforeseen circumstances. The power house was constructed in 1938 and the work officially resumed in 1940, even if it was interrupted by World War II. The first stage of the scheme harnessed the Kehelgamu Oya to generate 25 MegaWatts of power. The entire project was completed only in the early 1950s, three decades after it started. What was this hydro power project?

4.The daily demand for electricity, when graphically plotted against time, is known as the load curve. It is characterised by ‘peaks’ and ‘dips’ that indicate electricity usage scenarios. The highest peak in Sri Lanka is due to household electricity usage in the evening and night. Lighting and television watching are the main contributors to this peak demand. This sharp peak starts everyday around 6.30 pm and lasts till about what time? (This is the period in which we can all contribute to reducing the demand by adopting energy efficient lighting practices.)

5. Some countries have decided to phase out the ordinary (incandescent) light bulbs as a way of encouraging the more energy-efficient lighting alternatives, such as compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) and LED lamps. Environmental groups are supporting this move: it offers immediate savings in power and also reductions in carbon emissions (in generating less power). In 2011, China pledged to replace the one billion it uses annually with more energy efficient models within five years. Which country has become the first in the world to completely phase out all incandescent bulbs?

6.Which English poet wrote the well known lines: “Energy is an eternal delight, and he who desires, but acts not, breeds pestilence.”?

7. The Gypsies is one of the most popular bands in Sri Lanka. Singing in both Sinhala and English, they have been in the show business for over four decades, and have produced a number of ‘hit songs’. They are also famous for their Sri Lankan baila music. The band was formed in 1969 by a Moratuwa-based entrepreneur with his five sons (Sunil, Nihal, Piyal, Nimal, Lal) all of who had just completed high school. Sunil Perera and Piyal Perera are the two surviving members from the original line up. Who founded the Gypsies band?

The Gypsies

8.Dramatist Dr Ediriweera Sarachchandra’s well known Sinhala play Sinhabahu was first staged on August 31, 1961. Based on a legend in the Lankan historical chronicle Mahavamsa, this play originally featured Charlie Jayawardene as Sinhabahu and Malini Ranasinghe as Suppa Devi. Which actor played the iconic role of the ‘lion’ in the first staging?

9.All of the world’s highest mountain peaks are located in Asia: in the Himalayan or Karakoram mountain ranges. Which mountain peak in the Andes – located in Argentina in South America - is the highest peak found outside Asia (not counting Antarctica)?

10.Ingvar Kamprad is the richest European in the world today, according to the Bloomberg Index, with a USD 42.5 billion net worth as at March 2012. Kamprad, 85, controls the world’s largest furniture retailer IKEA.

Founded in 1943 by 17-year-old Ingvar Kamprad, the company is named as an acronym comprising the initials of the founder’s name (Ingvar Kamprad), the farm where he grew up (Elmtaryd), and his home parish (Agunnaryd, in Småland). Which European country is he from?

11. The Last Station was a 2009 Hollywood movie, a biographical drama about the last few months of Russian writer Leo Tolstoy’s life. Directed by Michael Hoffman, the film starred Christopher Plummer as Tolstoy and Helen Mirren as his wife Sophia Tolstaya. The story centres around the battle between Sophia and his disciple Vladimir Chertkov for his legacy and the copyright of his works. It was adapted from the 1990 biographical novel of the same name by which American writer and academic?

12.Name the Chinese philosopher who advised: “No matter how busy you may think you are, you must find time for reading -- or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance.”

13.Name the British atmospheric scientist and chemist who in 1975 proposed the Gaia Theory, which suggests that the living matter on our planet functions like a single living organism. He says that the biosphere – or the global sum of all ecosystems – is a self-regulating entity with the capacity to keep our planet healthy by controlling the chemical and physical environment.

14. Over the years, some events were added to the Olympics while others were removed. One event that is no any longer held was dominated by the American athlete Ray Ewry, who won three consecutive gold medals in that event in the Olympic Games of 1900, 1904 and 1908. Which event was this?

15. A new scientific expedition is being mounted in 2012 to investigate the disappearance of Amelia Earhart. It follows prospective fresh evidence from a remote Pacific island that may hold clues to the fate of the renowned American pilot who vanished in 1937 while attempting to fly around the world on an equatorial route.

Her Lockheed Electra airplane disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean near Howland Island July 2, 1937. Who was her flying mate who also lost his life? He was an American flight navigator, sea captain and himself an aviation pioneer, who first charted many commercial airline routes across the Pacific Ocean during the 1930s.

Last week’s answers

1. The Registrar General’s Office

2. A shortage of paper at that time

3. July 17, 2001

4. Ampara District

5. 1963

6. Ahmed Orabi or Arabi Pasha (1839–1911)

7. Prasanna Vithanage

8. Astronauts David Scott and James Irvin

9. Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (1809 – 1882)

10.E F (Ernst Friedrich) Schumacher (1911 – 1977)

11. Dr Lester James Peries

12. Gabriel Garcia Marquez

13. 85.3% of households (balance: kerosene 12.8% eland

15. Berlin Olympics in 936