Then we will talk about the proposed Sri Lanka- India interconnection and the legal and regulatory issues, the frame works available and what is envisaged in the future in this cross border electricity trade in this region.
Sri Lanka electricity sector has a big utility, Ceylon Electricity Board which has license for generation, transmission and distribution of electricity.
So about 80 percent of the Sri Lanka’s electricity is generated by Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) and CEB handles the entire transmission system and also about 88 percent of the distribution.
We also have another distributor called Lanka Electricity Company (LECO); it is about 12 percent of the electricity distribution.
About 20 percent of the electricity generation is done by the independent power producers.
In 2002, Sri Lanka enacted an act called electricity reforms act which was very much similar to the India’s 2003 electricity act, but that act did not see the day of the light and in 2009, we introduced “Sri Lanka Electricity Act” through which the electricity generation is regulate.
We have a system of about 3700 MW of installed capacity and peak demand of 2200 MW, which is a small compare to the Indians electricity system.
Also we have about 13,000GWh of energy generation.
Public Utility Commission of Sri Lanka is the regulator of Sri Lanka’s electricity sector which was established in 2002 under the act no 35 along with the electricity reforms act which was proposed at that time.
But PUCSL was empowered to regulate the electricity sector in 2009, under the Sri Lanka’s electricity act.
The commission act as the economic, technical and safety regulator and advises the government on all matters related to industry and exercise licensing, inspecting , standardizing the industry , the tariff regulation , efficiency promotion and information dissemination.
According to the Sri Lanka electricity act the Commission has to ensure the coordinated economic efficiency and uninterrupted supply at all time throughout Sri Lanka.
The current legal position on generation of electricity is that the licensing is required for anyone to generate electricity and also the government shareholding is required for plants generating above 25 MW.
The generation requirement needs to be identified in the long term generation expansion plan.
And competitive bidding is mandatory in this act for new generation plants or the expansion of existing generation plants.
The transmission licensee is required and Ceylon Electricity Board is the transmission licensee by the act.
So no other transmission licenses can be issued and CEB is the sole transmission licensee.
In the distribution, there are four licenses issued to CEB for four different regions and there is another licensee issued to LECO.
And also anyone to obtain distribution licensees there should be requirement of more than 50 percent of government ownership and also certain categories of the government ownership is specified in the act for obtaining distribution licensees.
The market risk for generation business is minimum. Because it’s a single buyer model and the government guarantees most of the contracts.
Even minimum dispatched requirements are given in the power purchase agreement and fuel supply risk is also with the CEB or with the government.
Operator viability and rights are legally ensured for utility operators as it is required to allow recovery of all the reasonable costs of licensees whether it is generation, transmission or distribution.
Then Sri Lanka has stringent procedures to issue enforcement orders and the criteria for revocation of licensees are clearly laid down in the Act, providing certainty for utility operators.
Introduction of legal provisions are required on the areas of open access, electricity trading, partnership of cross border generation expansion, operation of cross boarder transmission licensees etc.
Pre-feasibility studies for Sri Lanka India HVDC transformation link have already been done.
This is originally planned for 500 MW which can be upgradeable to 1000MW.
Agreements were signed to conduct feasibility in collaboration with power grid India and CEB.
It was proposed to have this link from Madurai in India to Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka with a 50 kilometer undersea cable at 400 KV.
There is a big opportunity here because now India is connected to Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan but Sri Lanka is not connected to the South Asian grid.
Sri Lanka is the country which is outside this grid at the moment whereas the most of other countries are already connected.
There are power deficits at various time intervals in both countries.
Large scale transmission network development is going on in India.
Very attractive peak prices have been observed in Indian power exchange and also recently India and Sri Lanka have embarked on a very high growth on renewable energy and potential savings in spinning receive is a great advantage for both countries.
Sri Lanka will be having some coal power plants planned already, one with NTPC India - 500 MW and we have a 900 MW coal power plant already in operations and a another coal power plant is proposed to be commissioned in 2022 but our off peak load is about 900 MW at the moment.
So considering these coal power plants and increased renewable energy for the off peak load renewable energy for the off peak load, interconnection with the region is very much useful.
We have large renewable energy potential especially wind and solar in the Northern part of the country which is very close proximity to India.
So there should be a mechanism to harness and evacuate this power without any issue to the existing power system.
Thank You.