Following on our story last week titled ‘Policy shifts threaten renewable energy industry future’ renewable energy developers denounced the recent down-word revision of tariffs terming it a counterproductive move that threatens the survival of the industry.
At a media briefing in Colombo last week, the Federation of Renewable Energy Developers (FRED) expressed concern over the recent move by the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) to slash the feed-in tariff that severely undermine the progress of the renewable energy sector in the country.
“These actions including discouraging key renewable energy resources and new investments to the sector threaten to derail the country’s progress towards a sustainable and secure energy future,” President FRED Thusitha Peiris said.
FRED officials said they had two rounds of discussions with the CEB on the impact of the tariff reduction but to no avail.
“What concerns us is also the unlimited curtailment of power generation through solar energy to the national grid. Curtailing it by a small percentage is not an issue but an unlimited amount is not justifiable,” the FRED said.
While FRED acknowledges the strain on the grid it believes there has to be a proper basis for policy shifts.
The core issue to the renewable energy developers is not the increasing adoption of ground mounted solar PV but the lack of investments on grid stabilisation measures and battery energy storage systems (BESS).
The CEB’s long-term generation expansion plan articulates the need for BESS where in total 440MW of BESS should be operating by 2026.
However, FRED notes that the vital BESS systems have not been tendered. It also believes that the 2030 target of reaching 70 percent energy from renewable sources would not be possible at the rate progress is made currently in the sector.
While the long-term generation expansion plan states that it can absorb 2600MW of solar by 2026 the present operating capacity is just over 1800MW leaving a gap of 800MW for the set target.
The annual expenditure on imports of costly fossil fuel is around USD 5,000 million. The renewable energy sector saves around USD 680 million annually by its contribution to the national grid.
The current annual energy demand which is around 18,000Gwh would rise to 28,000Gwh by 2030 which is a 55 percent increase. Renewable energy demand which is 9,850Gwh would increase to 19,850Gwh by 2030 which would be 101 percent increase.
Responding to the concerns of renewable energy developers, Chairman of Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority, Prof. T.M.W.J. Bandara said energy could be stored in batteries and built pumps that will help get over the supply-demand equation especially on Sundays when the demand is less.
However, FRED said the future of the renewable energy sector will be at stake if the authorities don’t pay heed to its woes by appointing an committee which comprising members of the renewable energy sector and a wider public representation to entertain a broader spectrum of views for decision making.
