Friday, 6 December 2013 00:00
-
- {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Says sustainable energy sources ignored, alleges corruption in coal purchases
By Ashwin Hemmathagama Our Lobby Correspondent
Opposition lawmaker Dr. Harsha de Silva yesterday criticised the proposed long-term electricity generation plan as not being suitable for Sri Lanka since it increases environmentally-degrading coal production to 77% by 2020 and sidelines renewable energy sources.
According to Dr. de Silva, the use of renewable energy will be given less priority and pro-Government entities will promote coal power plants at high cost, forcing the electricity unit price to move up.
“We need to stress more on using renewable energy,” he said. “This is the first time the long-term electricity generation plan comes to the public domain. The long-term electricity generation plan looks at the next 30-40 years. Power generation was never tabled for public consultation. In 2003 when the Public Utilities Commission was established, it was ruled mandatory to table the plan for consultation, which never happened.”
He insisted that since rainfall has been favourable in 2013 and due to the fuel surcharge, the Ceylon Electricity Board has made a profit of Rs. 19.9 million in September this year. Even though the Public Utilities Commission held that the benefit has to be passed on to the consumer, the CEB is not willing to do this, he charged, as it wants to settle past losses.
“This is not possible; a fuel surcharge cannot be used to settle debt. If the Government is not acting in a public-friendly manner, we call it a traitor.”
He insisted that renewable energy was being sidelined as the new plan suggests 77% coal to meet future demand.
Dr. de Silva added that an expert panel comprised of Anil Cabral, Asoka Abeygunawardena and Dr. Janaka Rathnasiri analysed the long-term power generation plan. According to him Dr. Rathnasiri, the former Technical Advisor to the Ministry of Environment, criticised the plan.
“Dr. Ratnasiri believes the main problem for coal power plant is with the selection of a suitable site, which needs to be close to the sea and to have an adequate site to dump the ash, which amounts to 288MT per day from a 300MW power plant. With Sri Lanka being a small country, the environmental degradation will be massive.
“We need to think about the need for coal and who is behind it. Recently we saw a ship bringing coal for Norochcholai; it is the same person who was involved in the SupremeSat satellite project using a personal loan taken from Exim Bank in China. Generally this bank does not give such loans unless there is political intervention. Now this ship containing low quality coal was anchored in deep sea for some time. The case has been given to the CID to investigate. Lanka Shipping Corporation was given the right to bring coal but now a third party is involved in it,” he alleged.
“People were discussing about an electricity mafia. Who is this mafia? LTL is the company behind the coal power plants. The LTL mafia is mentioned in the COPE report also. They say LTL is owned by three directors and a 63% stake is held by CEB. LTL constructs coal power plants at high cost and even sells the power at high price,” Dr. de Silva went on to charge.
“The long-term generation plan is not suitable. According to the ‘Mahinda Chinthana,’ by 2020 renewable energy should cater to 20% of the demand. But the long-term plan will have nonconventional renewable energy reduced to 6% by 2020. Who authorised the reduction? In 1990 we were 100% on hydro for electricity requirement. In 2010, we used hydro for 47%, oil for 47%, and renewable energy for 7% to meet the electricity requirement. According to the plan by 2020, coal will be used for 58%, hydro will be reduced to 24%, oil will be at 10%, and renewable energy only 8%,” Dr. de Silva told Parliament.
He emphasised that this plan also violates the ‘Mahinda Chinthana’ and would not help the public at any level.
