Paving the way towards an Energy Secure Sri Lanka

Duminda Dissanayake, Hon. Minister of State for Solar, Wind and Hydro Generation Project Development, assumed duties on August 18, 2020. After assuming duties in the Ministry, he visited the Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority, the main body of the Ministry.

The study focused on Renewable Energy promotional plans in Sri Lanka and the plans currently in place for renewable energy development, as well as the proposed plan to offset 80% of the country's total energy use by 2030.

Engineer Ranjith Sepala, Chairman of the Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority, Director General Dr. Asanka S. Rodrigo and senior officials of the Authority were present.

On August 18, 2020, as part of the "Rivi Balaya - Liya Saviyata" program launched by the Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority to promote solar energy in the field, a program was launched to educate women officers serving in the Armed Forces on solar power technology.

The theoretical and practical training at this workshop was provided by experts in the field and the practical workshop was held at the Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority, Hambantota Solar Power Park.

The main objective of this "Rivi Balaya - Liya Saviyata" program is to increase the number of women taking up employment opportunities emerging in the field of solar energy.

The first deadline of the Sri Lanka National Energy Efficiency Award 2020 (27th March 2020) and the deadline of the Best Energy Services Company Award (3rd April 2020) will be extended considering the current situation in the country. New deadlines will be informed in due course.

The Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority set up a stall at the Educational Exhibition held to mark the 75th anniversary of the Galahitiyawa National School in Gampaha.

The stall was operational from 26th February to 1st March 2020, to educate students on renewable energy and energy conservation related to the school science curriculum.  A large number of students from several schools in the Gampaha area visited the stall to expand their knowledge.

Chartered Engineer Mr. Ranjith Sepala assumed duties on 20th January 2020 as the Chairman of Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority (SLSEA).Former Army Commander General (Rtd.) Daya Ratnayake, Director General (SLSEA) Dr. Asanka S Rodrigo and officials from Ministry of Power and Energy graced the occasion.

He was enrolled as an Electrical Engineer of the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) in 1985, and later rendered service as the Resident Manager, Galle Fort and later as the Human Resource Manager of the SLPA. He has a service period of 34 years in Sri Lankan public service.

Furthermore, he served as the Director General of SLSEA during 2017-2019 and introduced many new projects to both SLPA and SLSEA. He has contributed to popularise solar energy in Sri Lanka in numerous manners.

The low end homes managed to save LKR 200 million last month by switching to LED and discarding IFL to light up their humble dwellings.

Programme Management Unit (PMU) of the Presidential Task Force on Energy Demand Side Management, which has been established under Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority (SEA) has developed a Light Emitting Diode (LED) lamp distribution programme named “Shakthi”. First phase of Shakthi LED distribution programme was started in 3rd June 2019 for the customers whose average monthly electricity consumption is less than 30 units. Around 300,000 number of LED bulbs were distributed among those customers at the end of 2019.

This initiative has so far avoided a peak demand of 7 MW and saved 10 GWh and 8321 ton CO2 annually which translate to a saving of LKR 185 million to this date.

In this programme it is expected to replace 10 million of Incandescent Filament Lamps (IFL) used in households in island wide with 9W LED lamps through utilities. Cost of LED lamps will be recovered from customers in 24 monthly installments, without interest. It is expected to reduce the peak demand by 304 MW, saving 432 GWh and 297,907 t CO2 annually. The second phase of the LED distribution program will be started in 2020 for 30-90 units consuming customers.

Families planning to build their own home can now look forward to a lifelong investment in a better designed home!

Launching a Guideline for Sustainable Energy Residences in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority (SLSEA) has launched a Guideline for Sustainable Energy Residences in Sri Lanka with the objective of providing essential knowledge and approaches to develop design concepts for residences with low energy use. This guideline has been prepared under the provisions available in SLSEA Act No 35 of 2007 to prescribe standards and regulations on building energy use in Sri Lanka. This guideline is meant for Sri Lankans involving in housing construction projects and it covers thermal comfort, Lighting integrations, Solar Energy Integrations and Water usage.

First stakeholder forum was held on 17th December 2019 at BMICH to present the guideline to the building sector professionals. Engineers, Architects, Technical Officers, Universities, Researchers, Housing construction companies and relevant government and private institutions participated in this session. SLSEA is planning to conduct this forum in all provinces in future.

Printed version of this guideline can be purchased from SLSEA and soft version of this can be freely downloaded from http://www.energy.gov.lk/en/energy-management/introducing-standards

A new effort is underway to identify how households use energy in the country

The SLSEA conducted a survey on electrical appliances in the household sector in collaboration with the Department of Census and Statistics, in 6,371 households during the third week of October, November and December 2019. The survey was conducted all island while data was gathered via an Android App tailor made for the purpose. The data is being verified by the DCS.

After the rapid expansion of the national grid and improvement of living standards, more and more Sri Lankans have begun to use electricity in their day to day tasks. As a result, recent and accurate statistics on the availability of electrical appliances and their usage patterns in households are not available. Therefore, it is timely and important to carry out surveys to assess the availability of electrical appliances in households and their respective usage patterns. Such surveys are vital for estimation of future demand for electricity, identifying energy efficiency improvement and conservation opportunities (EEI&C) in the country.

State sector officials will lead the country’s contribution to fight climate change. Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority engaged these officers last months to arm them with necessary knowledge.

Energy conservation, efficiency improvement and renewable energy development has become a national need of the country recently. According to the COP 21 agreement signed by the government, Sri Lanka has a target of reducing 20% greenhouse gas emissions against business as usual scenario by 2030 in energy sector. To achieve these government goals, Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority as the focal government entity for implementing energy management practices in the country has launched several programmes targeting industrial, commercial, government and private sectors.

In line with that, circular PS/PCMD/C/13/2019 on energy efficiency improvements in government institutions has been issued by the presidential secretariat in 28th March 2019. According to the circular every government organization must appoint an energy management officer and he/she must be responsible for energy conservation and improving energy efficiency of their organization.

In order to train the energy management officers and build their knowledge on energy efficiency improvement and renewable energy, Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority has initiated a workshop series on the title of ‘Energy Management and Renewable Energy’ targeting all government institutions in the country. These workshops were conducted in district level and so far Kurunegala, Puttlam, Rathnapura, Kegalle, Kandy, Matale, Badulla and Monaragala districts had been covered. SLSEA is planning to cover the rest of the districts within this year.

Energy Management Officers trained so far

Kurunegala - 115 energy management officers

Puttlam – 60 energy management officers

Rathnapura - 160 energy management officers

Kegalle – 130 energy management officers

Kandy, Matale – 130 energy management officers

Badulla – 200 energy management officers

Monaragala – 100 energy management officers

Inefficient ceiling fans which use a lot of electricity causing user to incur heavy losses will be a thing of the past.

Energy labelling programme for ceiling fans operates on mandatory basis; ie. each and every supplier of ceiling fans, whether being an importer or manufacturer or distributor or agent shall conform with the set of regulations enacted in this regard. Mandatory displaying of the energy label on the box of the ceiling fan, and prohibiting the imports and local manufacturing of ceiling fans which do not earn one star are the key components of the regulations. These regulations are published as the extraordinary gazette numbered 1794/15 of 22nd January 2013.

Ceiling fan suppliers were made aware at many circumstances about the SLS Standard, gazette notification and the implementation method. On 15th August 2019 a suppliers’ forum of the ceiling fans was held, and during this meeting a collective decision was taken to implement the mandatory energy labelling programme for ceiling fans on 01st January 2020.

Ceiling fan the secondly addressed item under the appliance energy labelling programme. Ceiling fans having two or more blades with sweep diameter 1400 mm and associated with regulators having minimum of five speed settings are covered under this programme. Energy label introduced for the ceiling fan has a maximum of five stars ranging from one to five. Higher the number of stars, higher the energy efficiency of the fan. Energy performance of the fan is evaluated considering the three factors called service value, incremental flow rate and the power factor.

Under this programme, ceiling fans are tested at the test facility established at the Sri Lanka Standards Institute. Since the energy label is issued for each model, samples from each and every model are subjected for tests. One sample undergone for testing consists of three fans. There are several requirements that the ceiling fan should pass before undergoing energy performance tests.

The fan should pass SLS 814 part 2 which deals with the safety requirements. To achieve at least one-star fan should comply with the minimum performance requirement given in the SLS 1600:2011 which is the Sri Lanka Standard published for energy labelling of ceiling fans.

3-star energy label for ceiling fans

Suppliers’ Forum held on 15th August 2019

Dr. Asanka Rodrigo assumed duties as the Director General of the Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority on 18th April 2019. Dr. Rodrigo holds B.Sc. Eng. (First Class Honours) in Electrical Engineering and Masters from the University of Moratuwa and Ph.D. from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He is an academic who has been involved in many industrial projects as a power system expert and also has contributed his expertise in the implementation of sustainable energy development programmes in the country by way of serving various committees on renewable energy and energy management.
He has been a Senior Lecturer of the Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Moratuwa, and has also served as the Director, Postgraduate Studies of Faculty of Engineering and Chairman of Energy Management committee of the University of Moratuwa.