ENERGY-SRI LANKA: Small Schemes to Free Up Power Supplies

By Feizal Samath Reprint | | Print |

Feizal Samath

COLOMBO, Apr 2 1998 (IPS) - Memories of the crippling power and water shortages that followed a severe drought two years back are still fresh in Sri Lanka.

Rapidly falling water levels in reservoirs, after the failure of monsoon rains, forced the closure of the country’s big hydroelectric power stations that generate three quarters of total electricity.

The government tided over the power crisis with short-term measures like buying power from private thermal power plants and offering diesel- or kerosene-run generators to the private sector at subsidised rates.

Now, together with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Sri Lanka has initiated a new programme to free up power supplies by building up sustainable and renewable energy technologies.

Researchers will investigate the potential for better utilisation of Sri Lanka’s water, wind and sun resources, and pass it on to potential investors.

“This would reduce the need for fossil power fuel in power generation. Therefore green-house gas production, which is associated with this type of energy, could be reduced,” observed Tilak Gunawardene, the UNDP’s resident representative and in charge of the 1.8 million dollar project.

He told IPS that the project hoped to promote mini and village hydro power units and draw the private sector into grid-connected and stand-alone schemes.

Many of Sri Lanka’s big tea plantations in the past had small mini-hydro schemes which were sufficient for their own energy requirements. But with far cheaper electricity available through the national grid, these schemes were abandoned.

Later this year, a team of foreign experts and the government’s Ceylon Electricity Board will study the potential for small hydro power schemes in a selected river basin.

“The area has not been identified. We are looking for a 30-40 miles (45-60 km) area on a river,” Gunawardene said. Another aspect is the building of two wind monitoring stations on the west coast and the central hills so that scientists can assess the wind capacities of these areas.

Currently the high velocity winds off the island’s southeast coast are being tapped at a wind farm established with World Bank assistance. “We want to look at the wind velocity on the west coast and central hills and ascertain whether it is sustainable and constant,” the UNDP official explained. “Knowing the potential of these sites will encourage the private sector to invest in small hydro and wind energy,” he added.

Though small hydro systems are a viable power generating option for Sri Lanka, many investors have stayed away due to the lack of proper information for investors. At the same time the local capacity and manufacture of small hydro equipment is limited.

To build up local manufacturing skills for small hydros, the UNDP has invited a Sri Lankan non-governmental agency, Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG) to provide training. “We hope to train up to 75 local people, in this field, in the next three years,” said Sunith Fernando, ITDG’s energy programme manager.

ITDG, which began operations in Sri Lanka in 1989, has developed new technology in energy, agro processing, rural transport, research and policy and communications. Fernando said that in the past six years, the group has run a village hydro project scheme in which units ranging from one kw to 35 kw are set up and owned, run and maintained by village communities.

At least 42 such mini hydro units on small streams are in operation with ITDG help. “We create the environment and provide technical support like training in designing, manufacturing and assembling a small hydro power plant,” Fernando said.

Most of the homes under this project receive 100 watts of electricity – enough to light five 20 watt fluorescent lamps, two of which are switched off when a black and white television is switched on.

According to ITDG, some village communities have given subsidised connections to poorer households, and people often lend neighbouring homes their share of power on special occasions like weddings and funerals.

Fernando says that there are 300 potential sites for 100 kw and more units across Sri Lanka which likewise could be tapped for hydro-power. Most of these are in tea plantations where

natural water sources are in abundance.

Sri Lanka’s Central Bank says that hydro power would continue to be the main source of electricity generation in the medium term.

“Although the country has over 100 river catchments, the climatic and typographical conditions are such that only seven of them have any significant hydro potential,” it said.

“However, a large expansion in hydro power capacity in the future is very unlikely, due to its environmental consequences, and there is need to reduce the already high over dependency on hydro power,” the bank noted.