Wind power industry welcomes ‘reasonable’ new renewable tariff

The Wind Power Association of Sri Lanka (WPASL) has welcomed the new tariff for renewable energy generation as well as increasing reliance on this source of energy.

“It is encouraging to note the initiative taken by Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka in publishing a reasonable tariff for wind industry for 2010/11, even though it is not as attractive as that of 2009. Also CEB has taken positive steps to absorb more wind power plants to the national grid in the future,” WPSL said in a statement.

It said the Government of Sri Lanka prepared its first National Renewable Energy Policy in 2008 under the guidelines of the ‘Mahinda Chinthana’ by President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

“Based on this policy, targets were set to have 10% of energy generation by non-conventional renewable energy (NCRE) sources by 2015. To date we have achieved 5.5% of this target. The Government is further reviving this policy to increase the target to 15-17% of energy generation by NCRE by 2015,” the statement added.

The tariff for NCRE for the years 2010/11 was published on 23 November 2010. This tariff was around 17% less than the tariff published in year 2009 for wind power industry. Many people talks of a high tariff paid for wind power generation.

“Still we wish to highlight some of the main benefits to the country by promoting wind power industry at the prevailing tariff,” the WPSL said.

Among them are:

=Even though a front loaded tariff is paid for the initial eight years, during the next 12 years the tariff will be only be around Rs. 12 per kWh. There would not be any energy generation mechanism, which could provide electricity at this low rate eight years from now.

=The tariff for these NCRE projects are fixed for the next 20 years in Sri Lankan Rupees, where as all the private thermal power plant tariffs are paid in US Dollars. So these NCRE tariffs will not give any burden to the utility on currency fluctuations.

=The tariff offered to NCRE project have no subsidy, where as private thermal power plants are supplied fuel at heavily subsidized prices, where this will have a major impact on CPC and the country as a whole.

=These NCRE project environmental friendly green projects, where there are no adverse emissions to the environment. In fact a 10MW wind power plant is eligible for 20,000 tonnes of carbon credit, which is an additional benefit to the country.

WPASL said wind power was the only potential large scale NCRE source available in Sri Lanka to achieve the Government’s target. To date 30MWs of wind power plants are in successful operation. Another 60MWs of wind power plants are in various stages of construction.

The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) is conducting further studies with a Danish consultancy firm on the possibility of absorbing more wind power in to the National Grid.