Retreat from Sanity in the Power Sector

by Parakrama Jayasinghe

“Sanity has Prevailed No More Coal Power Plants” . This is the title of my article in the Sunday Island in October 2016 ( ) after the Secretary, Ministry of Power and Energy gave an undertaking to the Supreme Court on September 13, 2016 , that the proposed Sampur coal power plant will not be built. This undertaking did not result from the Ministry or the CEB exercising any rational reasoning of the insanity of continuing to push for more and more coal power plants, but due to the undeniable and obvious negative impacts of the proposed coal power plant laid before the Supreme Court. The writing was on the wall that if the plea by the Environmental Foundation Ltd supported by many other concerned organizations and individuals, if heard by the court would have resulted in the same outcome.

The euphoria felt by the country at large was spelled out by the first paragraph of my above article

“Sri Lanka and those of us who have battled for decades to highlight the dangers posed by use of coal for power generation, both for the environment in general and the health of the people without exception, can at last heave a sigh of relief. It is hardly necessary to emphasize that Sri Lanka not having any indigenous coal reserves, had no compulsion to even consider this option until all other options are exhausted.”

That was back in 2016. Anyone who has even a nodding acquaintance with the recent trends in the power sector in the rest of the world, would therefore be aghast to listen to Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa declaring in the recent budget speech that a 300 MW coal power plant is proposed to be built at Norochcholai. It will be recalled that Rajapaksa in his Presidential Election Manifesto ” Vision for the Future ” declared

Indigenous energy resources will be developed to the optimum levels to minimise dependence on non-indigenous resources, subject to economic, environmental and social constraints. (Page 5)

This was in 2010. The changes in the last decade on all “economic, environmental and social constraints” without exception have made even consideration of any coal power plants totally insane._

And President Gotabaya Rajapakse went even further to declare a goal of achieving 80% renewable contribution to the energy sector by year 2030. As such there is absolutely no room for any more coal power plants as the present three are expected to continue to operate and limp along till then.

So we, the citizens are nonplussed by this turn of events with the Minister for Power and Energy Dulles Alahapperuma bragging in parliament (Nov 28, 2020) that work on the fourth coal power plant at Norochchloai will commence in two weeks.

Even though the Sampur coal power plant was shelved, the CEB never accepted that Sri Lanka could have a secure and reliable power supply in the future without depending on more coal power plants. Enough has been said about the harm being done by this power plant to the environment and the health of the people and will not be repeated here. The CEB continued its campaign to do further harm by proposing to add some 2,700 MW if coal power in their proposed Long Term Generation Plan for 2018-2037.

Fortunately the totally false assumptions and forecasts used to portray coal power as the least cost option was debunked by many and the PUCSL approved an amended proposal which had 4500 MW Natural Gas power plants instead of any more coal power plants. ( )

The CEB was not ready to accept this decision of the regulator, which is its legal responsibility and through its Engineers Union launched a campaign to discredit the PUCSL, the legally constituted regulator. The government did not have the backbone to lay down the law and tell the CEB authorities to abide by the LTEGP approved by the PUCSL. This would have been the procedure in any country when any licensee flouts the regulator’s orders and faces revoking of the permits issued to them. While in Sri Lanka, the country like no other irrespective of the government in power, such stipulations apply only to private sector developers of renewable energy.

Or does this portend the future way of doing things when there are rumblings of the Electricity Act to be changed to take away the powers of the PUCSL. The PUCSL has done yeoman service in past years to protect the rights of the consumers as well as the country, by debunking the totally fallacious arguments set forth by the utility, trying to pretend that coal power is the least cost option. Without an independent regulator for the sector, the CEB with the monopoly status could continue their totally irresponsible plans and programs.

It is unfortunate to see that they have managed to hoodwink the present government and the Ministry of Power and Energy as well, as they have continued to do so for several decades. The newest ploy was to propagate a myth of ” Clean Coal ” The fact that there is no such animal was clearly explained in the Article Dirty Coal Raising its Head disguised as “Clean Coal” ()

If these unwarranted and totally unwise power projects are permitted to go through, “The Vision for Prosperity and Splendour” of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa which the country hoped would embody the national policy of the present government, would be relegated to just an election manifesto like many others in the past, just promises with no intention of fulfilling.

But all that is required to reach a clear vision for the future of coal for electricity, is to view the dozens of postings on the internet. Many countries with vast indigenous coal resources are shelving plans for any more coal power plants and increasing numbers of existing coal power plants are being closed down. A few of these news item out of hundreds are listed below.

The World Scene – New Coal Plants canceled

Bangladesh’s Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources proposed 350 MW Gazaria coal plant be dropped. Bangladeshi government officials have confirmed almost 90 per cent of proposed coal power plants may be scrapped,

Coal power is no more a cheap option and it’s becoming more expensive for imported coal. -Mohammad Hossain, the Director General of the Bangladesh Power, Energy and Mineral Resources research body.

Maharashtra’s Minister for Energy, Nitin Raut, rejected construction of a new 660 megawatt (MW) coal unit at the aging 910 MW Nasik plant owned by the Maharashtra State Power Generation Company

Canada:

Donkin mine in Nova Scotia, which opened in 2017, closes

UK:

The 2000 MW Fiddler’s Ferry and the 1725 MW Aberthaw power stations have closed

Global coal power capacity declined by 21,200 megawatts (MW) in the first half of 2020 with the largest changes being the closure of 8300 MW in European Union countries and 5400 MW in the US,

Poland Could Phase Out Coal by 2030 in Business As Usual

French will close its 600 megawatt (MW) Provence coal plant in France two years earlier than planned.

Other countries shouldn’t settle for dirtier, high-carbon power projects now that China has decided to phase them out domestically, Han Chen in China Dialogue.

Romanian Government confirms no more coal plants to be built:

Marubeni Corporation, will exit from the consortium proposing to build the 630 MW Thabametsi coal plant in South Africa.

NGO groups in the Philippines have welcomed the decision by the South Korean utility KEPCO that it will not proceed with the proposed Sual 2 coal plant,

Prime Minister, Yoshihide Suga, said he would “fundamentally change Japan’s long-term reliance on coal fired energy” as the country moved to be carbon neutral by 2050

South Korea unveils 2050 carbon neutrality target. “We will create new markets and industries and create jobs by replacing coal power generation with renewable energy,”

Pakistan: Government considers ban on new plants that rely on imported gas and coal

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( The web references to these news items are available if requested)

It is seen that these decisions come from all over the world and from many countries with their own coal resources. There is no earthly reason for Sri Lanka to take an opposite view, unless driven by private agendas. Furthermore the source of funding for coal power plants are also drying out.

No more Funding for New Coal Power Plants

Sumitomo announces suspension of loans for new coal plants

Review urges Asian Development Bank to support coal phase-out…

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) has decided not to finance the proposed 1050 MW Lamu coal plant in Kenya.

Samsung’s key insurance affiliates pledge to halt coal investments

Coal is no longer the Least Cost Option

Solar and Wind power are now cheaper than coal in all countries. This has been proven time and again in Sri Lanka too as indicated by the responses to the recent tenders.

In addition to the concerns on the environmental damage the very clear evidence that Renewable Energy resources such as wind and solar are now far cheaper to generate electricity than even operating existing coal power plants. Therefore even on economic grounds opting for more coal power plants for Sri Lanka is sheer lunacy, unless of course there are other reasons which do not come into the public domain. Why this haste to commence work on a power plant in blatant violation of the Electricity Act as well as the due process for evaluating the environmental impacts? Maybe the plan is to get docile agencies to formulate the Terms of Reference and for conducting the EIAs as was done in the case of existing coal power plant, as well as in case of the Sampur coal power plant. It will be interesting to see to what extent the TOR will cover the recommendations by Dr Janaka Ratnasiri in his article (). In addition the SLEMA report on the externalities clearly shows that a minimum of Rs 10.00 per unit has to be added to the cost of generation from coal to cover the impact on the environment and the health aspects.

In this situation, a ray of hope is the directive given by the Chairman of the COPE that the Central Environmental Authority should have the jurisdiction to conduct the EIA process as the possible environmental impact would affect the whole country, beyond the boundaries of the North Western Province.

But then who knows to what extent the CEB or the Ministry will abide by the directions of COPE when they regard the directives of the Regulator PUCSL in utter disdain.

There are many Renewable Energy Projects and even Natural Gas projects already approved by the government , which will ensure the future energy security without resorting to this dirty coal option, whatever the effort to whilewash it.

As such Sri Lanka can only wait in hope for sanity to return as nothing seems to have changed in the power sector, irrespective of the change in government and lofty promises given.

Eng Parakrama Jayasinghe

E Mail:

28^th Nov 2020