We are all quite aware of the mess in the electricity sector in the country. Both quality and continuity have been compromised and there seems to be little done to rectify the matter. The consumer suffers constantly due to blackouts, breakdowns, price hikes and manipulation, horror service and customer response, insane engineering decisions, all sorts of rumors related to corruption, citizen confusion and trade union thuggery. The pressure is seen not only in macroeconomics but in micro-wallet. These are the normal conditions under which the Sri Lankan citizen lives... in a hate-love, lose-win relationship with the monopolist service
provider of electricity, the CEB. Fifteen years ago, the citizens
rumbled that it was high time something was done.
Since then, that rumble occurred each time they were forced to sit in the dark or light candles and those times became more and more frequent despite the fact that the long suffering public was almost resigned to never getting the type of service they paid for and deserved. With the spate of island wide blackouts over the last few months the situation is no longer one that the public is willing to tolerate. Indeed, it is not something that the state can tolerate either. Something had to be done. But what? And How? And when? And by whom? And at what cost? And with what sort of future-proofing?
These key questions that impact
national energy security, citizen wellbeing and overall national security were
addressed by Mr. Asoka Abeygunawardhane at his lecture on THE ELECTRICITY
SECTOR - A VISION FOR THE FUTURE: 100% RENEWABLES BY 2030 held on the 26th
of May 2016 at the auditorium of the Institute, Engineers of Sri Lanka (IESL).
To lay the ground work for his
answers, he asks a key question of the electricity sector in Sri Lanka: when
the world has decided that rise in temperature has its original and its
continuance in the fact that the world continues to burn fossil fuels and bound
itself legally to sustainable energy based on renewables, why is the CEB continuing
with the coal, coal, coal matra as a solution to Sri Lanka’s energy issues?
When it is proven that coal is the most expensive fuel for use in Sri Lanka why
is the CEB claiming it is the cheapest? When the national policy and the policy
under which President Maithripala Sirisena was elected was based on 100%
renewables, why did the CEB submit a long term generation plan for 2016-2034
that was based to the tune of 85% on coal? When the rest of the world was
trying to figure out what to do with their existence fossil fuel infrastructure
because they were pushing towards renewables, why was the CEB actually trying
to build more power stations that used coal which no body in their right minds
was promoting anywhere in the world? When there was proof that there was ample
opportunity to renegotiate so-called “committed” coal power stations such as
Sampoor, why was the CEB reluctant to do so despite of the issues at the Puttalam
coal power plant that is threatening national energy security? How did they manage to wire up their
transmission system in such a way that when one single transformer blew the
entire nation was plunged into darkness not once but thrice in six months? When
renewable energy technologies have improved dramatically over the last five
years, why was the CEB still harping on issues with these energy sources that
are no longer present? Why did they plan
only for large hydro among all the renewables in their generation optimization
plan and didn’t even consider other sources?
Why do they say “Whatever the manifesto of the president of the country
and the aspirations of the people, we will do what we want!”?
Well, some of the reasons are
answered in the questions themselves.
Ignorance of technological development in renewable energies indicates
either engineering astigmatism or more likely, a deliberate choice to remain
ignorant in order to keep promoting the most expensive fuels at cost to the
national economy and the wallet of the consumer. Believing they can act with
impunity indicates strong reliance on the ability of the oil & gas mafia to
exert sufficient pressure on the government as it has always done in the past. The
fact that the transmission system was so badly designed was a clear indication
that the generation fuel was already determined to be coal and the transmission
system created to cater to that source when in actuality, transmission systems
should be designed along with generation strategies and be independent of the
specific fuel that is being used so this is a indication of a complete lack of
professionalism on the part of CEB engineers.
However, none of those provide a
clear reason why the CEB is so allergic to renewables except for large scale
hydro and perhaps large scale wind. The real reason as Asoka points out is that
renewables are difficult to monopolize because they are small in size and
scattered in location, and, the minute the ability to control the energy source
is removed, the CEB is no longer monopoly, it cannot continue to be
inefficient, it cannot continue to dictate service standards and pricing to the
market and it cannot continue to be high-handed with either the state that
created it or the public that uses its services.
However, as Asoka pointed out,
the game that the CEB has been playing with the public and the state for years
is now up. The PUCSL and the Ministry of Power and Energy rejected its long
term generation plan citing the fact that it was not in line with government
policy of achieving 100% renewables by 2030 and that it simply chose to maintain
renewable energy sources in its generation plan at the 20% level which was
agreed to before the present government came into power. The fact that the
CEB’s high handedness has been condemned and literally thrown out of the window
should be a slap that stings then badly Asoka implied.
Next, he went on to prove that
micro-generation of power either through hydro or dendro or solar would
instantly turn consumers into producers, ensure that money that hitherto went
to the energy mafia would now be channeled directly to the citizens of the
country generally and specifically to the rural poor who engage in providing
biomass for micro-dendro plants scattered throughout the country and generating
about 500MW of power. He further added that the growing of such plants was part
of the broader national strategy of the government to move swiftly to
sustainable development with a parallel exercise in toxin-free agriculture that
would overall reduce the food production related energy costs, improve rural
economies, stabilize the environment and instantly improve the overall health
of the country.
He also pointed out that Sri Lanka
can utilize about a million rooftops in the country to generate electricity and
that Sri Lanka can significantly tap into the energy potential of its seas
(wave energy and ocean thermal conversion) and use such source to cater to
thermal comfort related applications in urban centers such as air conditioners.
He also had a firm counter to the
claim of variability of renewable resources that the CEB constantly harps on
and stated that creating about 3000MW of pump water storage will manage this
issue for the next few years. After that, Asoka justifiably states, “renewable
technology will advance with the global push to a level where power variability
will no longer be an issue”.
Asoka not only clearly stated
that the path to energy security for Sri Lanka is not through coal or LNG or
any other fossil fuel but by ensuring the 100% renewables target but was also
equally clear that the government was committed to demand side management
which, if managed well with the citizens executing their responsibilities could
reduce overall energy usage by as much as 40%.
The overarching implication of
his talk was that the world was at the end of the era of reductionism driven by
fossil fuels, motor transportation, centralization, profit and large businesses
and moving sooner rather than later to a holistic development paradigm based on
renewable fuel sources, IT / Public & NM transportation, distributed systems, satisfaction and cottage
industries. He observed that the CEB was still living in the stone ages with
the former paradigm while the present government of Sri Lanka under President
Maithripala Sirisena was forward thinking according to the later paradigm and
with the political commitment to deliver on the promises made to the people,
neither the CEB nor its supporters who were (and still are) bent upon the
destruction of Sri Lanka’s environment, the impoverishment of its people and
the ruination of its economy.
