Experts stress need for another base load power plant

by Lalin Fernandopulle

Energy sector experts are of the view that with the electricity consumption doubling from around the year 2000, it is urgent and imperative to go for another base load power plant to avert blackouts which impede industrial and commercial activities.

The policy makers should urgently focus on another base load power plant to avoid a recurrence of the power outage in 2001, if not by 2020 the country would face a similar or worse scenario obstructing development.

Executive Director, LIRNEasia, Prof. Rohan Samarajiva said there is a proposal to build a base load station with India and negotiations in this regard has been going on since Sampur was liberated from the clutches of the LTTE.

A modern transmission network, a system control centre and connection to the South Indian grid should take place parallel to the setting up of another base load station.

Subsequent governments did not focus on the need to build a coal power plant due to public resistance.

The way forward to meet the rising electricity consumption in the country, five years down the line, is to go for a base load power plant, Prof. Samarajiva said.

Electricity in Sri Lanka is generated using three primary sources - thermal power which includes energy from biomass, coal, and all other fuel-oil sources, hydro power including small hydro and other non-conventional renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power. Experts said Sri Lanka has no alternative but to go for one more base load power plant with either coal, Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) or nuclear energy. LNG and nuclear are cleaner than coal but since Sri Lanka has no LNG it will have to purchase it at an exorbitant cost.

Energy experts said renewable energy should be encouraged as incremental power and not as base load power.

Tapping renewable sources is a costly exercise needing advanced technology. Denmark has greater reliance on wind and solar power. It has installed turbines in the middle of the sea to generate power.

Hydroelectricity is the oldest source of electricity generation in Sri Lanka. However, its market share is declining because suitable new sites are scarce.

Currently, ten large hydroelectric power stations are in operation, with the single largest hydroelectric source being the Victoria power station.

Sri Lanka cannot absorb intermittent sources of energy to go for the 20 percent target of the energy need of the country. We need to revamp the transmission network which needs additional investments, experts said.

In November, 2014 a government tender for Euro 7 million was given to Alstom, an Indian company to provide a system control centre that matches supply and demand.

Sri Lanka needs more sophisticated technology. We have made a start with the control centre. We had blackouts in September 2015 and February and March 2016. If we could have isolated the issue it wouldn’t have been a nationwide outage, Prof. Samarajiva said.

However, Sri Lanka is a head of its neighbours in power supply which makes the cost of production high compared to many countries in the region. There are no brownouts as found in certain countries in the region. According to the revised tariff rates of 2014 the unit charge for domestic consumption per month between 0-30 kwh is Rs. 2.50 and from 31-60 kwh is Rs. 4.85.