Lanka’s new energy future still in the pits of the dirty coal past
But light shines at end of power tunnel as Cabinet approves one LNG plant as well as two coal plants plus 100 million dollar investment in solar power
If the croaking of frogs signal imminent rain in the offing, then the occasional rumble of CEB officials followed by attending claps of thunder boomed as warnings by their heavily tutored and house trained minister portend the call for the indispensable need for another coal plant or two to avert power cuts and prevent the age of darkness from settling in the land.
Last month when a deluge of rain fell on the land just before the advent of Christmas, an engineer at the Ceylon Electricity Board brought great seasonal cheer when he revealed to the media that the bounty from heaven was helping the CEB to make a saving of 500 million bucks per day due to the high generation of hydro power. The reservoirs were full and the CEB was using 70 percent of hydropower to meet the nation’s daily energy demands.
But the rainbow was short lived and the one who heralded the good news was never heard of again. One week later, CEB union officials warned of imminent power cuts by March. Two weeks later, Power and energy Minister Mahinda Amaraweera, as expected, took over the megaphone to prepare the people for the dark times ahead and to emphasise on the need for a more permanent source to supply the country’s power needs instead of depending on the vagaries of the weather and await the Weather Gods to send in the rains at their whim and pleasure.
He said that at a discussion held between the Power and Energy Minister Mahinda Amaraweera and the officials of the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), it had been revealed that hydropower was being used to the maximum since diesel power plants had not been operative. The Minister said the maximum use of water in reservoirs to produce hydropower could result in draining of reservoirs and no rainfall could be expected in the near future.
And what’s the answer to Lanka’s perennial problem -- a problem successive governments could not solve since independence?
The answer, of course, is the one dished out year after year in recent times by the CEB Mafia who, like a fully charged Duracell battery, propounds energetically and repeatedly the godly virtues of the Devil’s black coal as Lanka’s only saving grace. It drives the stake of fear into the nation’s poorish heart by prophesying Doomsday if we don’t pin our faith and trust in a basket of coal to light our homes, power our industries.
The unions, for reasons best known to themselves, have opted to go for the hard sell to promote this ancient 19th century fossil fuel as Lanka’s fuel of the future. They have even gone to the extent of supporting their arguments with statistics, arithmetic and assumptions. They say, ‘ assuming coal plants were not there in 2017, and CEB had to produce 5,103 GWh of energy with liquid fuel at 25 rupees a unit, the total generation cost would have been about 172.5 billion rupees. At 7.90 rupees per unit the coal energy cost is about 40.3 billion rupees. This is a saving of 87 billion rupees compared to the average energy cost of a CEB plant. Assuming the power was bought from private developers at 27.5 rupees a unit including capital costs (capacity charge) the same energy would have cost 140 billion rupees. Coal with capital costs at 11.38 rupees would total only 58 billion rupees, indicating a saving of 82.26 billion rupees or about 541 million dollars. At that rate, in less than three years, the coal plants would have paid for themselves compared to the alternatives available.’
Got it? Well that’s how the unions put the arguments for coal in an arithmetic nutshell and, whilst the world stares at the heavens and views the sun as the answer to provide infinite solar power, tries to justify Lanka digging into the nethermost regions of infinite hell to find, in that underground mine of condemned coal, the solution for its future energy needs.
In the late 1980s, a proposal was first made to establish a coal plant in the island. But the protest raised by the environmentalists and echoed by the nation’s press, soon grounded it. But those in the energy sector remained fixated on coal. And during the second term of Mahinda Rajapaksa, the government stifled all protests and invited the Chinese to set up the now ‘ always breakdown’ Norochcholai Coal Plant in Kalpitiya and it was commissioned in 2014 with the Chinese banker, President Xi Jinping in attendance.
But if one coal power plant was bad news for Lanka and her environment, last year President Maithripala Sirisena and his UNP cabinet of ministers planned to introduce not one, not two, but three more coal plants in the country.
In May, last year, the UNP cabinet approved three new coal power plants. Two in Foul Point in Trincomalee of 300Mw each and another near Norochcholai in Puttalam which would also generate 300Mw. Cabinet approval was given despite previous pledges that the government will not seek a return to coal as Lanka’s fuelling agent of the future. This was pledged by President Sirisena when he cancelled a 500Mw Indian sponsored coal plant in Sampur in 2015.
Last year on December 29, Archbishop of Colombo Malcom Cardinal Ranjith addressing a seminar on ‘Is coal the solution to the energy crisis?’ said, ‘ there should be no coal fired power plants and steps should be taken to put an end to the proposed additional 600Mw of coal power projects at Norochcholai. The
Cardinal stressed that if possible, the Norochcholai plant, too, should be stopped.
Last Friday, Cardinal Malcom Ranjith along with bishops, residents and environmentalists of Chilaw met President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. The President assured them the Power and Energy Minister would assign a team of engineers to investigate the activities of the Norochcholai Power Plant.
The President’s Office said the Norochcholai Coal Power Plant which is at its third stage generates 900MW of electricity at present and that no decision has been taken yet regarding the fourth stage.
This Wednesday, the cabinet gave approval to the setting up of two coal power plants as an extension to the present Norochcholai plant. This decision is to be regretted. What must be realised is not the cost that cheap coal power will do to this country but the economic damage that will rain upon it in time to come. The burning of fossil fuels causes acid rain. If one coal plant can cause acid rain, imagine what two more plants in this small island can do.
Last June, for example, the North Wester n Province Environmental Authority asked the Secretary to the Ministry of Power, Suren Batagoda, to shut down and restart Plant One of the Lakvijaya coal power plant in Norochcholai by mid-June so that its flue-gas desulphuriser (FGD) becomes operational.
And why? According to the report published in the Island on June 3, ‘two plants are operating without FGDs. Flue gas desulfurisation is a set of technologies used to remove sulphur dioxide ( SO2) from exhaust flue gases of fossil-fuel power plants and from the emissions of other sulphur oxide emitting processes. This means that harmful acid gas sulphur dioxide (SO2) from the smoke of the power plant goes into the atmosphere which leads to acid rain.’
For what’s the environmental damage that acid rain does?
According to scientists, ecological effects of acid rain are most clearly seen in aquatic environments, such as streams, lakes, and marshes where it can be harmful to fish and other wildlife. As it flows through the soil, acidic rain water can leach aluminium from soil clay particles and then flow into streams and lakes. The more acid that is introduced to the ecosystem, the more aluminium is released. Needless to say, it can have a devastating effect on the tea lands of Lanka.
Furthermore, it is said, dead or dying trees are a common sight in areas effected by acid rain. Acid rain leaches aluminium from the soil. That aluminium may be harmful to plants as well as animals. Acid rain also removes minerals and nutrients from the soil that trees need to grow. At high elevations, acidic fog and clouds might strip nutrients from trees’ foliage, leaving them with brown or dead leaves and needles. The trees are then less able to absorb sunlight, which makes them weak.
Aye, there’s the rub. For in that fall of acid rain, what destruction may come to the tea that grow in the highlands, none can really say, except to note that the quality of Ceylon Tea may be permanently tarred with the acid that falls from heaven.
But there was light at the end of the power tunnel when the cabinet approved the setting up of an LNG power plant of 300Mw. LNG is regarded as an imperfect improvement on coal and is considered to be the cleanest fossil fuel.
The cabinet also approved solar plants to be built with a 100 million dollar credit from India. That is a step in the right direction. Instead of Lanka burying her head ostrich style in the sand searching for fossil fuels to power her future, she should join the rest of the world and look toward the sun and to the elements for renewable power as the fuel of the future and not remain in retro mode and seek her future needs in the past.