in response to the an article published in the nation this sunday1 titled "An energy secure Sri Lanka".
the author featured the bossa of the sri lanka sustainable energy authority (sea), harsha wickramasinghe. sea is approaching energy security by promoting conservation and indigenous energy sources such as biomass, wind, etc. the author and the bossa failed to see an important aspect of sri lanka becoming energy independent.
the sea
there was a time when over 90% of sri lanka's electrical energy demand was met by (major) hydro power. the high rate of electrification changed all that, demanding more energy generated from thermal sources. thus, a framework for energy conservation was needed. the energy conservation fund (ecf) was formed under the ministry of power and energy. the ecf was to study energy usage and suggest conservation methods. the ecf was renamed to sustainable energy authority (sea) last year.
increase of installed electrical power generation capacity from 1969 to 2005 in sri lanka
the sea is headed by mr. ananda gunasekera. harsha wickramasinghe portrays a bossa role in operations. i have worked with him on several biomass and refrigeration projects - most of which was never completed.
industrial and commercial sectors consume over 73%
while appreciating sea's effort towards conserving (electrical) energy, i see a flaw in their approach. if you read the newspaper article1 and also if you analyze their conservation campaigns, their major focus is on domestic electrical consumption.
according to the ceb 4 industrial and commercial sectors consume over 73% of the total electrical energy produced.
in 2005, the domestic sector consumed 2403 million kWh electricity from the ceb and 456 million kWh from leco amounting to 2559 million kWh of electrical energy. the total energy produced in 2005 amounts to 7255 million kWh. that is, the domestic sector consumes only 35% of the total. street lighting, religious and other miscellaneous sectors consumes less than 2%. the industrial and commercial sector consumes 73% of the total electrical energy generated.
sea's conservation framework helps the industrial sector?
does the sea have a framework to conserve or reduce energy consumption in these sectors? from statements made by bossa of sea suggest otherwise.
"This shift can be achieved via two approaches," explained Wickramasingha. The first is technically termed as ‘improved consumption of energy efficiency.’ It includes cutting down on fossil fuel importations, switching off unnecessary lights, substituting CFL bulbs, improved road networks (for transportation)etc. "This is very important. For example, if we give free CFL bulbs to every household in the country, we would be saving 300,000 kilowatt hours per day!"
The second approach is to develop our own resources like biomass, hydro power, solar, windetc. When asked about the practical applicability of these two approaches, Wickramasingha said that the SEA is planning a threefold implementation programme. One is to phase out the use of all incandescent lamps within the next three years. Secondly, the SEA will convert the oil-powered thermal base to a biomass-powered base. Thirdly, the SEA would commission a massive public awareness campaign, targeting efficient energy consumption in the power generation sector and wise road use in the transportation sector.1
their focus is on 300,000 kWh per day off a consumption of 109.5 million kWh per year. that is a very insignificant amount. but its important to appreciate that over 5 billion kWh is consumed by the industrial and commercial sector. shouldn't their attention be more focused there?
also, although biomass and other renewable energy technologies can make a significant impact in thermal applications, they cannot make a dent in the electrical power sector.
sea promotes escos
although sea's focus is mainly in the domestic sector, they do have a esco (energy services company) framework. role of an esco is to audit energy consumption, suggest changes and monitor performance. some even guarantee energy and cost savings. the main consumers of electrical energy in the industrial and commercial sector are high power electrical motors and lighting. standard motors have a lower efficiency (around 75-85%). fluorescent lighting is often used with electromagnetic ballasts.
notice that the standard fluorescent light takes a while to start-up. hence the urban slang "tube-light" :) this is because most of these lamps use a electromagnetic ballast to control the power flowing to the lamp. CFLs on the other hand illuminate much faster. this is because they use electronic ballasts. apart from the faster start-up time, the electronic ballasts consume much less power. the standard 70W dual lamp fluorescent unit with electromagnetic ballasts consume about 25W. an electronic ballast for such a unit would consume only 1W. replacing fluorescent lamps with CFL's are not practical mainly because of cost. however, installing electronic ballasts is a cost-effective alternative. it saves over 24W per dual-lamp unit. which is a significant amount because the lighting cost can be reduced from 95W to 71W - a saving of 25%.
high efficiency motors and lighting equipment are quite expensive and usually have over 2 year pay periods. e-friends II is a special low interest loan scheme for energy conservation projects is offered by development banks and some commercial banks. e-friends II is regulated by the ministry of enterprise development & investment promotion and funded by the asian development bank and some other donor agencies.
energy labeling
energy star is proven energy labeling protocol introduced by the us environmental protection agency (epa). the sea has initiated such a program but has failed to implement it with an impact. a vendor can import and market low efficiency equipment. the consumer benefits by the low capital cost but imposes a burden on a national scale when numbers build up.
the epa has managed to implement the energy star rating with successful results. in 2006, the energy star program managed to save over 170 billion kWh which amounted to 5% of the total energy demand.5 so the rating system would work if implemented properly. consumers should be encouraged to purchase high(er) efficiency machinery and a higher duty imposed on low(er) efficiency machinery.
energy security - do we need it?
according to the bossa, we feel insecure in terms of energy because we are highly dependent on imported fuels. more than becoming energy independent, we need to manage our energy better. the high cost of energy is due to ceb's award winning corruption and mismanagement. highly politicized electrification policy is also a major contributor. we must accept reality - we will not be able to produce 2 GW of electricity using renewable energy sources so being energy independent is a socialist's dream. sri lanka needs cheaper electricity. the coal power plant is one solution, instead of feeding the grid with diesel power. the hydro power plants have less than 30% plant factors. 3
my vote is for the energy reforms and coal power. the former will offer better energy management and the latter will offer cheaper power. if you have an alternative solution, comment bellow. you are welcome to post your socialist dreams as well. :)