Major challenges (57)

Sri Lanka is facing a sustained increased demand for electricity due to population growth, increase of electrification levels and socio-economic development. Initially, hydropower was the main source of electricity production, but over the years, the number of fossil fuel based power plants has increased to cater for the growing demand, with thermal generation presently representing about 64 per cent of the total generation.

The main challenge for the power sector currently is the high generation cost due to the high dependence on imported fuel, the non-implementation of power plants in time and the reasonably high level of transmission and distribution losses (more than 16 per cent in 2006). Other challenges for the power sector include improving the quality of distribution, implementation of regulatory reforms and implementation of a successful demand-side management programme.

 Power sector reform

A number of reforms have been planned with the vertically integrated utility initially functioning as a commercially independent strategic business unit responsible for generation, transmission and distribution. A regulatory agency will be created to ensure that the different public companies comply with the socio-economic objectives of the Government.

 Access and affordability (58)

The declared policy by the Government is to electrify 100 per cent of the population by 2020. In spite of the high generation cost, the Government heavily subsidizes the residential tariff to ensure affordability of electricity for all. However, from figure 33 it can be seen that the sector of community with the lowest income tends to pay the greatest portion of their household income for electricity.

 Environmental management

The Ceylon Electricity Board states a strong commitment to environmental management of their power generation facilities. They have established an environmental management system and have staff managing the environmental performance. Continuous monitoring equipment has been installed along with a heightened stack to improve the dispersion of air pollutants (59). In 2005, it was estimated that 23,000 tonnes of oxides of nitrogen (NOx) was emitted from power generation in Sri Lanka. This is actually an increase from the previous two years. Almost 33,000 tonnes of sulphur dioxide (SO2) was emitted as well along with more than 2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2).

Stakeholders

Ceylon Electricity Boar
Ministry of Power and Energy  
Lanka Electricity Company
Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority 

(57) Philippine Department of Energy, 2005 Energy Sector Accomplishment Report cited a survey submission from the Philippines Department of Energy to ESCAP
(58) Philippines Department of Energy website, http:www.doe.gov.ph, accessed in August 2007
(59) Power Development Plan 2005-2014 cited in a survey submission from the Philippines Department of Energy to ESCAP.