NDB, SEA for hydro power development

NDB entered into a partnership with the Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority (SEA) and the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) as a participating financial institute for a special initiative introduced by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to assist the development of Micro Hydro Power projects within the estate sector.

Through the project, ADB will provide a credit line of US $ 1.29 million to facilitate the refurbishment and re-powering of micro-hydro power plants in tea/ rubber estates to harness hydro power resources within identified estates.

The project will deliver engineering assessment and environmental and social monitoring to develop 19 identified micro-hydro projects generating a resultant 1.3 MW of grid connected capacity on a net metering basis.

The identified micro-hydro projects are located in Badulla, Kandy, Kegalle, Matale, Nuwara Eliya and Ratnapura districts. The credit facilities granted to private developers will finance up to 100 % of the total estimated cost of the micro-hydro power project at concessionary rates for repayment tenure of 5 years including a maximum grace period of up to one year.

The Estate Micro Hydro Rehabilitation and Re-powering Project (EMRRP) is a sub initiative of the ADB funded ‘Sustainable Power Sector Support Project’ which provides funding for micro-hydro rehabilitation and grid connection along with consulting support to develop detailed technical specifications.

The above initiative of the ADB swiftly follows the recently approved policy initiative for the development of renewable energy sources for grid interconnection, based on the principle of net metering.

Through similar projects concluded previously using the above mechanism,small hydropower plants in the capacity range 0.25 to 10 MW have been developed and by end 2011, 107 such power plants with an aggregate capacity of 253 megawatt (MW) had been developed of which 95 power plants of aggregate capacity 206 MW were small hydropower. A parallel initiative to assist rural communities to develop small hydro resources has resulted in about 300 such off-grid community networks, typically between 10 to 50 kW, serving about 7,500 households. The EMRRP will focus on potential hydro power sites developed in mid 1990s but have ceased to be in operation and have been excluded in the above two initiatives.

Commenting on the partnership, Chief Operating Officer of NDB IndrajitWickramasinghe said, “We are proud to partner this national endeavor which would make a significant contribution to the national economy through re-powering of renewable energy sources with potential to generate considerable volumes of power.”