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| Sunday, 10 April 2005 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Small hydro power projects to ease energy crisis Expedite the development of proposed 300MW of small hydro power projects and commence Upper Kotmale and Norochcholai power plants immediately to prevent a collapse in the energy sector - and another blow on the economy, said Grid Connected Small Power Developers Association Chairman Dr. Nishantha Nanayakkara. Currently, CEB needs another 300MW of low cost power to meet the present demand and there is a shortage of generation of this capacity. This situation will worsen with the increasing demand of eight percent annually. Therefore the Government should commence the 300MW renewable power project as proposed in the last budget, he said. "Only hydro and coal power plants can generate electricity at a low cost and we emphasise the need of commencing these new projects without delay to prevent an economic disaster throwing the people into trouble," Dr. Nanayakkara said. He also said that to temporarily avert the impending disaster due to the delay of Kotmale and Norochcholai plants, the construction of the proposed combined cycle power plant at Kerawalapitiya could be started soon. The cost of a unit of electricity generated by this plant has been estimated at about Rs.10, which is well below the current price that is paid to private thermal power producers. Sri Lanka's estimated annual electricity demand would increase to 10,000 million units by 2010 from present 7,000 million units. To meet this additional 3000 million units, the country needs another 500MW plant capacity, and implementation of small hydro power project would be one solution to the power crisis. This would also ease the financial crisis of the CEB and provide relief to consumers, he said. He said that though the Government has pledged to encourage public-private partnership project to develop 10 - 50MW hydropower, an action plan is yet to be set up. If this scheme is implemented soon, it can add at least 250MW to the national grid within the next four years, he said. |
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