Power and Energy Minister and CEB Engineers at loggerheads over energy issue
08th December 2019, themorning.lk, By Maheesha Mudugamuwa
• 700 projects stalled since 2011; 80 others pending approval this year
• Shortage cannot be filled by renewable energy, CEB engineers say
Over 700 renewable energy projects including both solar and wind, amounting to around 2,400 MW, had been stalled since 2011 due to opposition by the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), as revealed at a meeting chaired by the newly appointed Power and Energy Minister Mahinda Amaraweera.
Accordingly, those projects had been rejected by the CEB engineers on the basis that there was not enough space in the national grid to facilitate the new additions, The Sunday Morning learnt.
This year alone, a total of 80 solar power projects were pending approval from the CEB, Minister Amaraweera told The Sunday Morning. He said the total capacity of the projects were at around 463 MW, which was more than sufficient to fill the existing energy shortage in the power sector. “All those projects had been delayed by giving different reasons,” Amaraweera said, pointing out that if those projects were added to the national grid, the country would not have been short of energy.
Despite Sri Lanka being one of the best countries to promote solar power, having sunlight throughout the year, the CEB, since 2011, had not taken sufficient steps to add solar energy to the national grid, according to the Minister. Furthermore, as a result of delaying the adding of renewable energy to the grid, the country had lost billions of rupees purchasing emergency power, the Minister said.
This had been revealed at a meeting held with the officials of the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) last week.
However, according to estimates, the CEB would incur a total loss of around Rs. 85 billion this year, with a majority of it due to the purchase of emergency power, The Sunday Morning learnt.
Minister Amaraweera however predicted that the country would face an energy shortage by mid-January which was inevitable. He has also stated that the power crisis could be solved by implementing existing renewable energy projects, and the need for commissioning LNG (liquid natural gas) power plants had also been stressed on by the Minister.
Meanwhile, The Sunday Morning spoke to a senior engineer at the CEB, who wished to remain anonymous, seeking a response to Minister Amaraweera’s claims that the CEB was responsible for delaying renewable energy projects.
The engineer told The Sunday Morning that renewable energy couldn’t be used to replace the need of firm energy sources and therefore, the solar power would not be a solution for the future energy crisis.
“For the last few years, there was a big push by the developers who wanted to have fixed prices without tenders. Projects larger than 5 or 10 MW have to have grid connectivity. The main issue is that the CEB has tried to call tenders and barring a few, the rest wanted higher prices,” he explained.
The senior engineer, who has over 25 years’ experience at the CEB, claimed at the time when renewable energy was promoted among the investors, the CEB offered higher prices but, at present, the best way was to go for tenders.
“We paid Rs. 22 per unit for all these wind projects in Puttalam, but when you called tenders, it was proved that the private sector can develop wind power at Rs. 12. The CEB also estimated that the cost will be Rs. 8. Likewise, when we don’t agree for higher prices, they simply say CEB engineers are against solar and they are for purchasing emergency power. Unfortunately, nobody noted that the developers asked for higher prices and were against tenders,” he stressed.
According to the senior engineer, the CEB had called for tenders worth around 150 MW so far.
He also criticised the attempts being taken by the Minister to amend the Electricity Act, alleging that they were trying to evade the competitive bidding process.
“Former Minister Ravi Karunanayake also tried to amend the Act and now the present Minister is also trying to do so,” he added.
Meanwhile, The Sunday Morning learnt that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa had also paid special attention to promote renewable energy at the last Cabinet meeting where Minister Amaraweera was informed of a total of Rs. 700 million been allocated to the development of the power and energy sector out of the $ 400 grant received from India.
However, the Minister was expecting to spend Rs. 100 million to distribute solar panels among the total of one million Samurdhi beneficiaries.