Editorial

The Mess in power generation

The Minister for Power and Energy is on record, saying that when it comes to power generation Sri Lanka is the “stupidest country in the world.” The statement may come as a bit of a shock to die hard nationalists who proclaim that this is the “best country in the world” and that is why most others are accused of conspiring to take control of this country (the USA, India, Norway etc.).

For years, experts in the area of electricity generation have been warning that unless we switched to coal power quickly, the current crisis would be inevitable. They lobbied politicians, the business community and wrote hundreds of articles spelling out that disaster would come.

A combination of environmentalists, business interests (those who supplied power to the CEB at highly inflated prices by bribing politicians and officials) and Premadasa haters combined to torpedo plans by the late President Ranasinghe Premadasa to start a coal power plant in Trincomalee. That was in 1991.

Then came the proposal for the Norochcholai coal power plant, fully funded by the Japanese government. This time it was the Catholic Church that took the lead and the usual culprits joined the protests. The same fate fell upon the Upper Kotmale hydro-power plant.

Politicians took the easy way out and built more and more power generating plants run on diesel. The businessmen and their chambers of commerce (the local kind were never known for foresight) were happy as long as they got cheap electricity in the short term. The people as a whole did what they always do — wait for someone else to fight on their behalf.

Now, everyone is complaining. As if none ever told them that this was inevitable. Experts have said so for at least the last 15 years.

Businessmen say they will not be competitive and the domestic consumers say they can’t afford it. Both may be right but they can only blame themselves .

Soon after winning the 2005 presidential election, President Rajapaksa ordered work on both Norochcholai and Upper Kotmale to start immediately. The lobbyist who had backed a UNP victory, were still in shock after the election defeat and could do nothing. Now, two more coal power plants are been planned in Hambantota and Trincomalee. Until Norochcholai comes into full production in 2014, the country will have to pay high rates for electricity. Additionally we will undergo what the entire island was subjected to last week when technical faults at two of Sri Lanka’s power stations Kotmale and Kelanitissa brought the whole island of Sri Lanka into darkness, early Friday morning.

As Sri Lanka faces a crisis of Herculean proportions where the generation of electricity is concerned, “kommis kaakkas” are on the make. The emergency diesel lobby according to informed sources influenced members of a Special Committee which was appointed to study and recommend a contingency plan, insisting that an additional 200MW of power be purchased from them instead of in the medium term, from Independent Power Producers (IPPs).

The Ministry of Power, last year, decided to obtain offers from existing IPPs (existing IPPs were used so as to reduce time) for quotations for 200MW of medium power in order to mitigate the deficit in power from the start of this year — a deficit which is to continue until 2011. According to the load forecast of the CEB, the demand for generation of 10482 million units in 2009 will increase to 13114 million units by 2011.

Currently, production levels are: hydro power 4465 GWh, Thermal 5,269 GWh, a total of only 9734 GWh.  Therefore a deficit situation has already arisen this year and will continue until 2011.  Three main power plants are expected to be commissioned during this period.  Upper Kotmale 150MW, Puttalam Coal Power Project 300MW and Kerawalapitiya Combined Cycle Plant 270MW. Though it was initially planned to be commissioned by 2010, these plants are now expected to be delayed by one to two years.

The Minister for power and energy would have been correct if he had just said “this is the stupidest country on Earth.” The mess in power generation is just but one minor example of the country’s stupidity.