ADB Vice President visits Microgrid Pilot Project and University of Moratuwa 

ADB-UoM-LECO high-level meeting at the Vice Chancellor’s Board Meeting Room. From left: Project Manager Eng. Tharindu de Silva, UoM Head-Department of Electrical Engineering Prof. Udayanga Hemapala, UoM Deputy Vice-Chancellor Prof. P.K.S. Mahanama, Senior Advisor to Vice President Dr. Aiming Zhou, LECO General Manager Dr. Narendra de Silva, LECO Chairman Athula De Silva, ADB Vice President Dr. Shixin Chen, UoM Vice-Chancellor Prof. Niranjan Gunawardena, ADB Sri Lanka Resident Mission Country Director Dr. Chen Chen, ADB Chief of Energy Sector Group Prof. Priyantha Wijayatunga, ADB Consultant Dr. Tilak Siyabalapitiya, UoM Faculty of Engineering Dean Prof. Nalin Wickramarachchi, ADB Consultant Eng. Keshan Samarasinghe, and ADB Sri Lanka Resident Mission Associate Project Officer-Energy Eng. Prathaj Haputhanthri at the ADB Vice President’s Microgrid Pilot Project site visit at the University of Moratuwa  

ADB Vice President, Dr. Shixin Chen recently visited the University of Moratuwa (UoM) and the Microgrid Pilot Project. He was accompanied by the UoM Vice Chancellor Prof. Niranjan Gunawardena. The key purpose of this visit was to discuss continuous research collaboration of ADB with UoM. ADB delegation headed by the Vice President included ADB Secretary Dr. Muhammad Ehsan Khan, Energy Sector Group Chief Prof. Priyantha Wijayatunga, Sri Lanka Resident Mission Country Director Dr. Chen Chen, Senior Advisor to Vice President Dr. Aiming Zhou, Sri Lanka Resident Mission Deputy Country Director Dr. Utsav Kumar, Sri Lanka Resident Senior Project Officer-Transport Mission Aruna Nanayakkara, and Sri Lanka Resident Mission Associate Project Officer-Energy Prathaj Haputhanthri. 

 “We hope to further enhance Sri Lanka-ADB cooperation through a research and development agenda to strengthen financial and economic development in the country and enhance knowledge sharing in the region” was the key message during the ADB high-level delegation visit to UoM. 

Dr. Shixin Chen was on a 6-day visit to Sri Lanka and it was his first visit to South Asia since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. In his busy schedule of high-level meetings such as those with the Sri Lanka President, Prime Minister, finance minister and the Central Bank governor, it was important that the Vice President Dr. Chen found time to visit UoM. 

UoM is in a way closely connected with ADB as the current ADB Chief of Energy Sector Group Prof. Wijayatunga is a graduate and a former senior staff member of UoM. Both him and former Chief of Energy Sector Group, Dr. Yongpin Zhai who visited the university in 2017, delivered the convocation addresses of UoM in 2017. 

UoM together with Lanka Electricity Company Ltd. (LECO) recently launched an important pilot project on microgrids with the financial assistance from ADB. The ADB assistance amounted to $ 1.8 million grant (approximately Rs. 325 million) from Clean Energy Financing Partnership Facility, the largest ever of such assistance to the university. The project commenced with a memorandum of understanding signed by UoM and LECO in 2018 for the purpose of establishing a research and development facility in the field of smart grids and renewable energy acquisition. The facilities established under this project are expected to benefit the engineering faculties and students in all the universities across the country as well as LECO which is looking to replicate this microgrid model in other parts of its distribution network. 

LECO Chairman Athula De Silva and the General Manager Dr. Narendra de Silva ushered the ADB delegation to the Vice Chancellor’s Board Meeting Room. The Vice Chancellor of UoM warmly welcomed the ADB delegation, the Vice President and the ADB Secretary. On behalf of UoM, the Vice-Chancellor extended his gratitude towards ADB for its significant financial and technical support for the project along with strong technical collaboration by LECO. 

The Vice-Chancellor said “ADB has been a long-term partner in Sri Lanka’s energy, transport, water and social sector development. While ADB is an international development finance institution, it is important to mention that we recognise ADB as a knowledge bank for our developing countries. Since ADB’s mission is to help its developing member countries to reduce poverty and improve the quality of life of their people, we are very happy and honoured to work closely with ADB in the future development work” 

The Vice President appreciated UoM-LECO’s warm welcome and he didn’t forget to congratulate the Vice-Chancellor and UoM staff as the university is celebrating its 50th Anniversary in 2022. 

The Vice President said “As ADB is a regional financial institution, I’m really glad to see ADB’s support for this microgrid pilot project initiative. The 55th Annual Meeting of ADB’s Board of Governors to be hosted by Sri Lanka during the first week of May 2022. During the ADB Annual Meeting, there will be more opportunity to showcase this innovative technology, promote among other member countries and initiate knowledge exchange programs within the region. I hope the ADB platform will be fully utilised by UoM and LECO in terms of innovation and regional cooperation. I really appreciate this ADB collaboration with UoM and LECO. This is not the end of the collective effort. This is the beginning of our partnership”  

UoM Dean of Faculty of Engineering Prof. Nalin Wickramarachchi also shared his thoughts at the event. “We hope the microgrid pilot project and the R&D facility will be one of the key initiatives in the island to penetrate more clean energy in our energy sector. We, at the University of Moratuwa, are grateful to receive the assistance of ADB and LECO towards initiating this timely and valuable project to incubate more innovations and cutting-edge technology developments. We welcome all our universities, industries, other sectors, and regional organisations to join us to build a green economy for our future generation” He added. 

LECO plans to replicate the project in the long run, as an extension to the traditional distribution network which catalyses the absorption of renewable based distributed generation into the distribution network.  

Among the senior officials of LECO, Dr. Narendra de Silva took this official meeting as an opportunity to highlight the LECO’s future development plan. The General Manager said “The future of transmission engineering is going to be a smart grid. LECO as a distribution entity in Sri Lanka, we are getting increasingly convinced that the future of distribution is going to be microgrid. The microgrid project is not only a very important project but a project which determines the future of our company. I’m pretty sure that in the future our business model as well as our engineering model is going to be microgrids. The ADB initiatives in granting this project has created a new pivotal point in our roadmap” 

Addressing the audience at the event, Prof. Wijayatunga said: “I earnestly hope that the UoM and LECO will share this facility even with the private universities. Of course, both UoM and LECO can have a commercial arrangement with the private universities if it services to be paid for. When it comes to replicate this project as a commercial model within the country and even outside the region obviously capacity building and knowledge sharing activities using this facility should be explored similar to what ADB has already done in other areas”     

Dr. Chen Chen appreciated the Vice chancellor’s approach on focusing on developing specific areas of expertise and research in UoM. He said “When I was an engineering student, we did not have such technology, but now we have the opportunity to support our students to develop more innovative microgrid technologies. We are looking forward to seeing how the UoM and LECO is going to commercialise this technology and how to replicate this project ensuring Sri Lanka gets best investment opportunities into the country. In the new ADB-Sri Lanka Partnership Strategy, we emphasise on knowledge development programs. Thus, we are very happy to work closely with UoM and LECO in the future.”   

Dr. Tilak Siyambalapitiya who is professional in the field of Power and Energy in the country, is one of the architects of this project since its inception. He said that: “ADB as one of the long-term development partners in the country, through its financial assistance, always introduced many novel technologies to uplift the country. This project is one such project from ADB which will be a key milestone in the power sector as a whole”. 

UoM Deputy Vice-Chancellor Prof. P.K.S. Mahanama, Dr. Ehsan Khan, Faculty of Graduate Studies Dean Prof. Ajith De Alwis and Department of Electrical Engineering Head Prof. Udayanga Hemapala also spoke.  

After the ceremonial event organised by UoM and LECO and the subsequent discussions, the Vice President, Dr. Chen and ADB delegation made a visit to the commercial microgrid project site and the LECO-UoM Smart Grid R&D Laboratory to observe the ongoing progress of the work. DIMO together with the German specialist DHYBRID, had been selected as the contractor for the supply of comprehensive renewable energy microgrid technology to the project. 

A microgrid is an autonomous and self-sufficient energy system with energy generation sources like solar power, energy storage devices and controllable loads. Energy consumers can have almost 100% reliable electricity supply from a micro grid which can be operated with or without the traditional grid. Future energy consumers will not feel and face any difficulties during a power outage in the main grid as traditional grids will be scattered into Microgrids during abnormal situations like those during power transients and sudden loss of power generation sources. And then the traditional grids will be re-formed once the situation comes back to normalcy. The microgrids save fossil fuel consumption from backup generators. Reliable electricity supply, zero blackouts, smart operation, low O&M cost, 365 days solar/wind power generation, independence, higher energy security, eco-friendly and low noise from the operation are the key benefits from microgrid technology. 

The LECO Microgrid Pilot Project Project Manager Eng. Tharindu de Silva described the project and technical perspectives for the future development. The Project Manager said “The microgrid technology helps distribution utilities to increase the resilience, reliability, and power quality and also to mitigate the issues with high renewable additions. During power outages, the microgrid can work in off-grid mode where only the solar PV system and battery serves the electricity demand. In case of power shortage with the microgrid, it can minimise certain non-essential loads to provide continuous power supply to essential loads. During prolonged outages like network maintenance, the backup diesel generator has the potential to feed electricity to match demand” 

The ADB Vice President’s visit successfully concluded with the understanding that this project will enable further research and development on microgrids and their replication and that it will pave the way for creating fundamental solutions to the electricity transmission and distribution sectors in Sri Lanka and outside. ADB expressed its keen interest in continuing discussions into furthering the impacts of this project which will be fully operational in a few weeks. 

Traditional Kandyan dance performance to welcome ADB Vice President Dr. Shixin Chen