• Prof. Experts highlights the need of sound policy framework, regulation process, operationalisation

Even though Sri Lanka is at present stepping towards making a new agenda for power and energy sector reforms with the participation of the relevant political authorities, experts and the academia, the Chief of the Energy Sector Group at the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Prof. Priyantha Wijethunga said that the developing world lags far behind the developed world in introducing new reforms to this sector.

Speaking at the “National Symposium on Power and Energy Sector Reforms in Sri Lanka” organised by the Electrical Engineering Society of the University of Moratuwa yesterday (31), Prof. Wijethunga also noted that Sri Lanka is much slower than other countries in the South Asia region such as India, Bangladesh and Pakistan when introducing reforms to the sector. He added that a good policy framework, regulation process and operation are needed to succeed in this.

Wijethunga said that it is important to pay attention towards reforming power and energy sectors, highlighting key energy related challenges faced by countries in the Asia-Pacific region where roughly, 350 million people remain without an adequate supply of electricity and 133 million people still have no access to electricity while the International Energy Agency estimates the doubling of the electricity demand in the region by 2040 and that renewable energy investments could reach United States Dollars 1.3 trillion. “Improving sectoral governance and addressing the lack of sectoral financial sustainability are needed for better reforms,” he said.

According to Prof. Wijethunga, power and energy sector reforms have been taken up rapidly during the 1995-2005 period but slowed significantly in the following two decades (2005-2020) as a result of being affected by political economic issues. Therefore, he said that the developing world lags far behind the developed world when it comes to introducing reforms to this particular sector.

He emphasised that a new vision on reform in this sector has emerged as the entire world is now focusing on sustainable power and energy sectors with rising issues mainly in climate change. “Differentiated approaches, low carbon development, increased private sector participation and the digitalisation of enablement have been identified as key facts in the emerging vision. The world should look at integrated planning, increasing clean energy deployment, the deployment of low carbon technologies and accelerating the reduction in the use of fossil fuels for a world where the carbon emission is low. The other most important aspect is the participation of the private sector in this reform based mechanism. It is very important as no Government can implement these reforms alone,” he said.

Speaking further on the issues prevailing in the Sri Lankan power and energy sector, Prof. Wijethunga presented numerous shortcomings in the sector such as delayed investments in low cost generation, constraints in renewable energy development (large parks), least cost tariff recovery, incomplete sectoral reforms, reliability related concerns, etc. 

“Technological interventions to support future operations, reducing the demand, allowing for the optimal use of generation, enabling competition, private sector participation, the timely implementation of low cost generation projects, developing all potential and possible large scale renewable energy parks, introducing battery energy storage systems, pumped storage, electronic mobility (road and rail transport), the modernisation of the distribution network to support demand side management, distributed generation, and energy efficiency are the most important reforms that should be enabled,” he said.