Effort by All Ceylon Buddhist Congress to help govt. of Sri Lanka escape from dollar trap

By DR L M K Tillekeratne

Chairman of the National Development Committee of the ACBC

It is a well-known fact that one the problems faced by Sri Lanka today is caused mainly by shortage of electricity for domestic purposes and industries. Three decades ago, only 20 % of houses had electricity for lighting. But, today over 95 % of houses in the whole country have electricity. Total electric power the country needs is about 2,750 MW a day. In order to generate 65% of it by using diesel and coal, the cost involved now is tremendous and that is the main reason for the creation of dollar shortage in the country. Besides, when Russia’s invasion in Ukraine six months ago equally attributed to the fuel shortage in the whole world thus creating enormous social and economic impacts, and petroleum prices in the Sri Lankan market increased by over 300%, which is bound to increase further at an alarming pace.However, while having enough bright sunlight all over Sri Lanka throughout the year to generate solar power and enough wind power particularly in areas like Mannar and Puttlam districts, only 40% of our electricity requirements are supplied by non-conventional renewable energy, while 65% of the balance need is produced by burning imported fuel oil and coal at a cost of Rs 80 to 100 per unit, thereby subjecting the environment of the country to a great threat by increasing the level of Green House gases to our atmosphere. Further, this conversion of generating electricity by burning oil and coal thereby lowering the liberation of Green House gases to the atmosphere will enable Sri Lanka to earn huge amount of Dollars by trading Carbon.

According to energy experts, it is expected to reduce this 65% of the energy requirement by burning fuel oil and coal down to 40% thus using more renewable energy by year 2030, thereby lowering the cost of producing a unit of electricity to about Rs 35.00.

Surprisingly, according to hydro power generating experts, there are over 400 streams and small waterfalls distributed all over the country without exploiting yet for setting up of mini hydro power generators. If these over 400 water sources are converted to hydro power generators producing not less than 1000 mega Watts of power are started, and by converting the wind power and solar power available in unlimited quantities, Sri Lankans can earn more foreign exchange by selling the extra electric power available to neighboring countries.

Hence, at present most of the dollars available are spent for importing diesel and coal to the tune of USD 6,000 million per annum. It should be mentioned here that out of this USD 6000 million, about 4,500 million is used for transport leaving a balance of USD 1,500 million to import fuel oil for power generation. According to energy experts, USD 1,500 million could easily be saved here for the other priority areas of the country, if mini hydro power generators are set up in those streams which are idling now. However, sadly no payments have been made for the power generated and supplied to the national grid by the few existing mini hydro power plants; they have supplied power to the tune of over Rs 20 billion for several months and hence some of them have been compelled to close their power plants.

Based on this objective, the ACBC, the premier Buddhist and Social organization in the country realized the need to create awareness of the options available and organized an exhibition of inventions last week on generating power utilizing those three natural sources and to display the public as to how they could conserve scarcely available electricity thereby saving extra money spent for generating power wasted due to lack of knowledge.

This event was not merely organized as an exhibition but to showcase the new inventions to the public, but as a workshop for the interested water source owners to select the appropriate invention suit to them best according to the conditions available in his source of water/ solar power/ or wind. Once the prospective investor identifies the suitable invention ideally needed to his needs, the power expert committee of the ACBC is planning to provide them with every technical support they need to do the feasibility study and even to the level of selecting machines etc. up to the level of setting up the complete power station. Further, the Bank of Ceylon has already agreed to provide them with a soft loan of Rs 3 million at 16% interest rate for setting up of the power unit.

It should be mentioned here with appreciation that the Ministry of Power and Energy has already decided to pay Rs 35 per unit of renewable energy produced from the 17.39 paid previously and also to pay all the back accumulated payments due to power generators. ACBC takes an innocent pride to place on record that the power generation project designed and launched by the expert panel members of the ACBC consists of renowned scientists and engineers who have earned distinctive reputation in their respective disciplines. This particular project perhaps is one of the key projects engineered by the ACBC in its proudest history of over 100 years with a view to finding solutions to the macro-economic issues whilst enhancing income generation at the peripheral level so that it would provide a helping hand to reduce the poverty level of the country.

With these important decisions taken by the government to encourage renewable energy production in all unexploited natural energy sources, it is not a difficult task to generate nearly 1000 MW of power within the next two to three years. Minimizing energy wastes by households and industries through the educational campaign initiate by the ACBC recently, another sizable saving of electrical energy saving could be achieved. Hence, the Development committee of the ACBC is optimistic in saving substantial portion of the dollars spent on Oil and Coal imports thereby making savings available in the country to help Sri Lanka to be the Wonder of Asia by year 2050.