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by Elmo Leonard

A micro-hydro electrification scheme to provide electricity to villages which are outside the reach of the national grid will begin shortly.

Breaking ground, the National Engineering Research and Development Centre (NERD) who will provide the technical know-how, began a 12-day residential workshop, attended by entrepreneurs from far and wide.

An estimated 73 percent of households depend on the national grid for electricity. In the next five years, the goal is 80 to 85 percent household electrification.

The micro-hydro project is aimed at supplying electricity to the other 15 to 20 percent, who are outside the national grid, which amounts to a million people, project director for Renewable Energy for Rural Economic Development (RERED) Jayantha Nagendra said.

RERED is an extension of a mini-hydro power project extending from 2002 to 2007 and preceded by Sri Lanka Energy Services Delivery (ESD) project, implemented during 1997-2002.

RERED is funded by a $75 million line of credit from the International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank and Global Environment Facility (GEF) grant of $8 million, NERD chairman, Jayantha Ranatunga said.

Loans for individual investments (sub-projects) are disbursed through Participating Credit Institutions (PCIs) who make their independent credit assessments while ensuring that sub-projects are financially viable, environmentally sound, meet requirements of engineering standards and are economically justifiable. The executing agency of RERED is the administrative unit (AU) set up within the DFCC Bank, Nagendra, who is also senior vice president of project management of DFCC Bank said.

Under RERED more than 65 projects of mini-hydro schemes were implemented till 2005, providing electricity for 3,000 households. Currently, there are 28 village hydro or mini-hydro developers registered with AU of the RERED project. Of these, six are limited liability companies, 13 NGOs and nine individuals, NERD engineer, T. A. Wickremasinghe said.

The mini-hydro schemes entail small turbines laid in the way of flowing water, such as rivers, streams and sprouts. The turbines are connected to dynamos, which produce electricity which is supplied to the national grid, for which Rs 8.50 per unit is paid.

For micro-hydro projects, with the national grid inaccessible, the entrepreneur will have to work out the price per electricity unit, accepted by the people in the village, Ranatunga said.

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