On Friday, May 11, the President’s office received a scathing email. *Ravi, like all other residents in Dehiwala, was irate over the frequent unannounced power outages. Ironically enough, power would be cut off in the evenings, long after working hours. This also meant that Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) hotlines would go unanswered.
Today marks a week since the same CEB engineers launched a work-to-rule campaign in protest over what they see as the state’s failure to ensure an uninterrupted power supply in the country. The industrial action also meant that workers would do the bare minimum regardless of the consequences.
Ravi eventually received a reply, albeit after ringing the highest echelons of the government. The response to his query, however, didn’t come in the form of an assurance that the issue would be looked into. Instead he was told to expect seven to eight hours of power outages daily. And that it might be wise for him to invest in a generator.
Act of sabotage
 The Norochcholai plant. |
Ravi is not alone in this predicament. Over the last week alone, power outages have reported from parts of Malabe, Thalawathugoda, Rajagiriya and Wellawatte. “It’s an act of sabotage,” a CEB unionist tells the Daily News. “Why else would most power outages occur in the evenings, when the chances of hotlines being answered or the problems being fixed are remote?”
He compares the power outages to the street protests by students. “If consumers aren’t inconvenienced, what is the point of strike actions?”
Head of the Ceylon Electricity Board Engineers’ Union (CEBEU) Saumya Kumarawadu rationalized that the cost of generating electricity has been on the rise since 2015 resulting in the CEB incurring heavy losses. “Last year, the CEB incurred a loss of Rs. 45 billion and this year we expect it to surpass Rs. 50 billion. The generation cost in 2015 stood at Rs 15.06/kwh with the addition of the Norochcholai Power Plant (300 MW) to the grid at the end of 2014. Since then, no new plants have been added to the grid, and coupled with the prevailing drought and the need to resort to more diesel power plants, the cost had risen to Rs 21.32/kwh by 2017.”
Rising demand for power
True to his claims, Sri Lanka policymakers are acutely aware of the rising demand for electricity. In 2016, total installed power generation capacity of the country was 4,018 MW, consisting of 1,384 MW of coal power, 1,215 MW of oil burning thermal power, 1,384 MW of hydro power and 519 MW of non-conventional renewable energy sources such as wind, mini hydro, biomass and solar power plants. The annual total electricity demand is about 14,150 GWh. The overall annual demand for electricity is expected to increase by 6 to 8 percent, a number constrained by high prices.
Sri Lanka’s ambitious plans to add 500mw of electricity to the national grid through the Sampur Power plant in 2015 came to a grinding halt when activists lobbied against the project citing environmental concerns. The appalling state of the Lakvijaya Power Plant (Norochcholai Power Plant) amplified the need to reassess if the country was prepared to have another coal power plant. Ultimately the Sampur Power Project was reduced to a mere political commitment.
“This is precisely the crux of the work-to-rule campaign,” Athula Wanniarachchi, executive committee member of the CEBEU said. “At any point in time, a country should either be building a power plant or ensuring that the growing demands for energy are met. We are not doing either and it is clear that we are heading for a power crisis.”
Long Term Generation Plan
The Union’s actions also come in the wake of them not being able to resolve issues with the utility regulator, the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL), which granted conditional approval for a Least Cost Long Term Generation Expansion Plan (LCLTGEP) prepared by the CEB. In various documents which are available on the public domain, the PUCSL cites factual errors and calls for explanations. The document has been sent back and forth with the PUCSL requesting the CEB to make amends. In many instances, the PUCSL demands that the CEB prepare a generation mix which also includes LNG and other renewable sources of energy without being overly dependent on coal.
Clear policy directive
“Who is the PUCSL to prepare and suggest changes to the Long Term Generation Plan? They are not even engineers,” says Wanniarachchi. “If this plan had been approved when it was first submitted, we wouldn’t even find ourselves in this position.”
Bringing an end to this protracted issue is a Joint Cabinet Memorandum submitted by the Special Assignments Ministry and Power and Renewable Energy Ministry. The memorandum, as Power and Renewable Energy State Minister Ajith P. Perera says, is a policy proposal on the way forward.
“The LTGP should be reviewed every two years. However, the one prepared by the CEB has been modified completely by the PUCSL which CEB has refused to accept,” the policy document details. The policy directive which was approved by Cabinet last week cites that the composition of the energy mix should be 30 percent LNG, 30 percent high efficient coal, 25 percent large hydro, and 15 percent furnace oil which is a by-product of sources from refineries and non-conventional renewable energy sources which can be used for firm power.
Super critical coal for Sri Lanka
“The policy paper clearly sets out the composition and there should be no disagreement thereafter,” the State Minister said. Pertaining to the issue of coal, the policy advocates for the use of for the use of clean coal technologies using super critical or ultra-super critical coal, since coal remains the best least cost electricity generation option.
“As coal power remains the least cost option, it has been decided that coal power should be there in the energy mix of the country,” the Cabinet paper no 21/2018/PE goes on to state. “Since environmental conservation is a prime policy, it has been proposed to employ clean coal technologies using super critical or ultra-super critical coal.”
The Cabinet paper cites that since renewable energy was the prime policy of the government, at least 50 percent of the electricity demand should be met by the use of major hydro power plants and other non-conventional renewable energy sources.
“Developing the non-conventional renewable energy sources to the maximum feasible level meeting, around one-third of the electricity requirement of the country (2500 mw) using non-conventional renewable energy sources by 2030,” it reads.
The Cabinet paper, however, does not detail the megawatts which would encompass the percentages given. The Joint Cabinet Memorandum submitted by the Power and Renewable Energy Ministry and Special Assignments Ministry also cites that the Power Ministry has submitted a report to the National Economic Council in April stressing that the powers for preparing policies for the electricity sector be vested with the relevant minister and Cabinet only.
Sources at the PUCSL stated that the CEB may now have to prepare a fresh plan based on the policy directive. When queried from the unionists, they argued that there isn’t a need for a new plan and that the PUCSL should merely approve what has been sent to them in the first place. They demand the following: approval be granted to the CEB’s LCLTGEP 2018-2038 plan; immediate action be taken to allocate lands to build low-cost power plants; and a proper mechanism to provide a government subsidy to the CEB for incurring losses as a result of no new power plants being built. Among other demands, they are also call for the amendment of the Sri Lanka Electricity Act No 20 of 2009 appropriately to remove the unnecessary impediments for the proper functioning of the CEB. “We won’t give up the campaign until that happens,” Wanniarchchi said.
According to the PUCSL, delay in implementation of the LGTP has serious financial repercussions. “The total expected financial loss due to implementation delays of the 2018-2020 plant schedule in the Long Term Generation Expansion Plan is Rs. 50.62 billion. The financial loss due to any further delay beyond what is forecasted in the previous section will be Rs. 3.43 billion for each month.”
(*Name changed to protect identity.)
Protests against the Sampur power plant.
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