Use electricity to save energy ....!!!

Use electricity to save energy
M. Bertie PERERA Australia

Electricity is not only a basic amenity, but also the best form of energy and it can be used very efficiently and also in clean environment. Hence, it is essential that electricity is used wherever possible in preference to other forms of energy. At present, millions of kilograms of gas and kerosene are burnt daily to do our cooking and also for lighting in the areas not served by the national grid.

This is wasteful and it costs the household as much as paying an equivalent of Rs.30 for a unit of electricity for cooking and Rs. 50 per unit for lighting with oil lamps because these lamps burn so much kerosene to give very little light. This wastage can either be eliminated or at least reduced through modern technology putting the power system to greater use.

CEB has done very well with regard to the extension of the national grid to cover about 85 percent of the population within a short period of time. It is now left for the CEB to utilize it fully by selling more electricity. Thus, CEB has the grid and if the generation of power also can be sorted out, CEB will be able to sell at least 10 million units of electricity for cooking to increase the present 30 million to 40 million units a day.

Limited base load
In Australia they generate over 600 million units of electricity daily for the same population as in Sri Lanka and when the two countries are compared in their proper perspective, CEB should generate at least 60 million units a day, for CEB to stay free of losses too. However, for cooking it is impossible to generate power economically as it demands very high power for short durations. The coal power cannot meet this pattern of power demand as it can feed only the base load as it has not got the fuel flexibility like gas or oil. Base load is a continuous load that exists for 12 month duration. Fortunately, in Sri Lanka 24-hour base load is a sufficient gauge for 12 months as there are no seasonal changes such as winter of summer. In Sri Lanka, the base load is limited. Furthermore, the increase of base load is on a low trajectory than the normal increase of power demand trajectory. Hence while our base load is met from coal, there should be another source of power to meet frequently varying loads such as domestic use including cooking.

At present, about five million households burn gas or kerosene for cooking, costing the country hundreds of millions of rupees daily creating an enormous amount of carbon emissions too. However, economically, there is no way that this can be handled by increasing the power and by upgrading distribution system as it needs a generation of about 10,000 MW of power for a few hours a day. The power of this magnitude will never be generated in Sri Lanka even in the next 30 years or so.

As such, CEB has to solve this problem taking advantage of the progress already made in the developed world in particular, to provide electricity to the people through renewable energy. Although the renewable energy is yet costly it can be reduced through equity. That is, CEB has to set up a subsidiary public company to set up a solar "power station" with a target of covering the entire country, from finance by selling shares to the public.

"Solar power station" can be built by installing solar panels on every roof of the consumer as a huge power station with a target of serving all the four million households that are connected to the grid. If an average of 1KW of solar panels are installed on each roof, in a few years it will be like a power station of 4000 MW of power for about six to eight hours a day, generating 25 to 30 million units of electricity a day.

If batteries, which are now available for this purpose, are included the power can be made available for 24 hours to do the cooking too, through a separate inverter isolated from the grid without any stress on the power system. Another inverter can be used to feed the lights and also to supply the excess power to the grid.

The cost of setting up an average system of 1 KW including solar panels, inverters, regulators and batteries is about Rs. 750,000. The lifespan of solar panels is 25 years as guaranteed by the manufacturers and 1 KW panel generates 1,800 units in a year and the cost per unit works out to about Rs.16 without taking the interest on the capital into consideration as the financing is proposed through equity. Hence, this is mainly the cost of plant depreciation and it will be needed only at the end of the lifespan of solar panels.

As such, the income generated from the sale of electricity can be monthly invested for 25 years until the major replacement is needed.

Solar power
When the money can thus be invested, it creates a very lucrative business to earn money too in addition to obtaining electricity from the sun. In fact, electricity can be sold even at Rs.13 a unit for cooking and Rs.10 a unit for all the other purposes, as there is no daily cost to meet for the supply of fuel. From each 1KW installation the annual income is about Rs.20,000, which is the present value, and when invested for 25 years it will be sufficient to meet the replacements, general maintenance, management, lease of roof space and also to pay dividends to shareholders.

These shares are of a business of producing readily marketable commodity produced from a freely available inexhaustible energy from the sun utilizing a proven technology. Appreciation of these energy shares therefore, is significant and since there are no better avenues than this for investment, there will not be any difficulty in attracting investors. Particularly the people who are young and working including self-employed can invest in this project through bank loan, keeping the shares as security, to have also an income on retirement after settling the bank loan. I suggest that this scheme is started immediately in stages so that the results could be seen progressively in months not in years.

We are living in the tropical region blessed with ample sun light and light being a source of energy it is time that we exploit this to our maximum benefit taking the advantage of the immense technical development progressed in the field of energy conversion and storage. Efficiency of solar conversion has reached about 25 percent, which means 1 KW panels will cover only under 10 percent of the roof of an average house leaving enough space for the future expansion too.

DAILYNEWS.LK