Sri Lanka’s Energy Woes
Electricity Production In Sri Lanka. Data from the CEB, 2010 (bit.ly/oXSmb7), infographic by me
The rains have come, but Sri Lanka’s power utility lost 167 million rupees per day in August. Ye Gods. Why do the rains matter? Because Sri Lanka runs primarily on hydro power and has to top that up with thermal power. What’s thermal power? Well, do you know how a generator works? You pump in diesel or petrol and it gives you electricity for a while? That’s our national policy.
Literally, what DineMor does when the electricity runs out is the same thing the government does, just on a larger (and much more expensive) scale.
As Minister Ranawaka said in Parliament, “We should remember that if we want power 24 hours it has to be done with thermal energy and it is expensive.”
Thing is, people do want power 24 hours. And they’re already paying high rates, at least I am. Even those rates are said to be subsidized, however, and Ranawaka is saying electricity needs to be more expensive to be more sustainable. Under this current system, however, this does seem necessary, at least until sensible power station (coal, for example) come online.
The Norochcholai power plant was opened in March and handed over from the Chinese in August, but has yet to add power to the grid. It’s open like the Hambantota Port is open, which is to say, not open. Lately it’s been in the news for periodically catching fire. But, um, I hope that works out. With 2800 MW capacity now (see infograph), the 300 MW this plant adds should improve reality by 10%. It’s eventually supposed to add 900MW to the grid.
Currently, however, national energy generation is largely the same as your average apartment building. When the mains kick it, you turn on the generator. This costs like 1.67 million dollar per day. Ye Gods.
The TV show the Sopranos taught me a lot about Sri Lankan politics. I was very sad to hear that the lead actor James Gandolfini 
Not to quote Ice Cube, but the Sri Lankan police are hardly beloved. A 
I just gave a talk at the University Of Sri Jayawardenapura along with Reeza Zarook of Anything.lk and Rohan Jayaweera of Google. These are my notes: Devin Jayasundara asked me for a subject for this talk and I told him Internet property. But I talked to my fiancé Shru and she had a better idea. Startups aren’t about creating property at all, not really. They’re about creating territory, about creating land.
I haven’t been blogging much, I know. It’s partly because we’ve been doing a lot of work on YAMU, especially shipping 1.0.1 of the Android app today. It’s on the 
I think consumers may eventually need to pay higher per unit tariff. Especially low users. (Upto 90 units). This is the segment which has highest per unit cost for CEB.
CEB should concentrate on a clear long term policy rather than toasting on profits during rainy periods (http://www.thesundayleader.lk/2011/03/20/minister-confirms-cebs-rs-5-bn-profit) and crying out on losses during dry seasons.
I know for facts that CEB has done a good job recently in finding out culprits who have been using electricity illegally. That must have saved millions. Still this is not enough to bridge the gap.
How about a tariff structure completely on thermal costs and returning the profit back to consumers during rainy seasons?
“It’s open like the Hambantota Port is open, which is to say, not open.” – hahaha :D
I head that there was a problem getting coal to Norochcholai, since the seas around it were rough for most of the year making it difficult for barges to carry coal from ships to shore. They better hurry up the Sampur power plant. Hell, they should’ve built the one at Norochcholai in Sampur instead. Underutilized Trinco harbour is underutilized.
I heard that electricity is free for everyone in Libya. It’s from an email that’s circulating. There were a few more interesting claims, not sure how accurate the list is.
1. There is no electricity bill in Libya; electricity is free for all its citizens.
2. There is no interest on loans, banks in Libya are state-owned and loans given to all its citizens at 0% interest by law.
3. Home considered a human right in Libya – Gaddafi vowed that his parents would not get a house until everyone in Libya had a home. Gaddafi’s father has died while him, his wife and his mother are still living in a tent.
4. All newlyweds in Libya receive $60,000 Dinar (US$50,000) by the government to buy their first apartment so to help start up the family.
5. Education and medical treatments are free in Libya. Before Gaddafi only 25% of Libyans are literate. Today the figure is 83%.
6. Should Libyans want to take up farming career, they would receive farming land, a farming house, equipments, seeds and livestock to kick-start their farms – all for free.
7. If Libyans cannot find the education or medical facilities they need in Libya, the government funds them to go abroad for it – not only free but they get US$2,300/mth accommodation and car allowance.
8. In Libyan, if a Libyan buys a car, the government subsidized 50% of the price.
9. The price of petrol in Libya is $0.14 per liter.
10. Libya has no external debt and its reserves amount to $150 billion – now frozen globally.
11. If a Libyan is unable to get employment after graduation the state would pay the average salary of the profession as if he or she is employed until employment is found.
12. A portion of Libyan oil sale is, credited directly to the bank accounts of all Libyan citizens.
13. A mother who gave birth to a child receive US$5,000
14. 40 loaves of bread in Libya costs $ 0.15
15. 25% of Libyans have a university degree
16. Gaddafi carried out the world’s largest irrigation project, known as the Great Man-Made River project, to make water readily available throughout the desert country.
Thanks for the translation Shammi, saw this but was too lazy to read, some bits of it are true but its probably part of the mourning for a dear friend…
On the power consumption, the big problems I would guess are:
1. illegal power use (unbilled usage),
2. losses in transmission,
3. interest/finance (the government never pays the CEB so they borrow money)
4. excessive staffing and other issues that are prevalent in state institutions.
5. losses on purchase of private power (they buy at 11 sell at 8)
There may be additional losses from other forms of waste/corruption. Not sure if the coal power plant is contributing to the loss, if it is not earning and ROI in excess of finance cost this could be added to the total losses.
If the CEB were to publish some simple statistics we would know more; for example:
1. Units generated v units billed
2. Cost of generation & cost of transmission per unit.
3. Debts outstanding over 90 days, loans outstanding & finance costs.
4. Breakdown of unit cost (in 2 above) by main cost heads.
5. Total number of staff.
Also they need to undo stupidities like this:
http://jestforkicks.blogspot.com/2008/06/easy-solution-to-saving-power-missed.html
I think the bit about the high literacy rate and welfare measures are true, he didn’t deserve that gruesome end.
About the high cost of power, you must be right about high finance costs and losses in transmission. I think they’ve stopped buying privately generated power now, or are at least paying lower rates for it.
They should also have strict guidelines for new constructions, ensuring maximum usage of natural light and ventilation.
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