{"id":106099,"date":"2020-08-31T23:19:44","date_gmt":"2020-09-01T05:19:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=106099"},"modified":"2020-08-31T16:13:47","modified_gmt":"2020-08-31T23:13:47","slug":"sri-lankas-power-supply-blackouts-and-how-to-prevent-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/08\/31\/sri-lankas-power-supply-blackouts-and-how-to-prevent-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka’s power supply, blackouts, and how to prevent them."},"content":{"rendered":"

By Chandre Dharmawardana<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Sri Lanka recently had a nationwide blackout that cost millions and even compromised its security. A blackout may be compared to a sudden heart attack, leaving a debilitated individual. This was the fifth\u00a0 heart attack\u201d suffered by the grid since the end of the Eelam wars, with blackouts in\u00a0 2009, 2015, twice in 2016, and on 17th August 2020. So we have a chronically sick patient. Given that a big chunk of Sri Lanka’s foreign exchange income goes for importing fuel, any government must urgently look at the power sector and make it work efficiently, uninterruptedly, and as inexpensively as possible.

Letting the Cat out of the Bag.
The CEB authorities have conveniently ascribed the problem to human error\u201d. The patient got the 5th heart attack accidentally, and to say that it was because he yawned too hard \u2013 without mention\u00a0 his chronic condition would be absurd!

Dr. Tilak Siyambalapitiya has written to the island Newspaper (19-08-20) about the anatomy of the blackout\u201d. We thank him for letting the cat out of the bag! He suggests that the CEB grid\u00a0 can be perturbed by\u00a0 small erratic inputs\u00a0 from Solar and Wind energies, making the grid unstable!

The SL-power grid\u00a0 provides about 2000 MW. However, even if many solar installations, wind farms etc., contributed erratically to the grid, they might hardly add to\u00a0 10 MW within a\u00a0 time interval of a few seconds. A few seconds is a large\u201d time for electrical systems that react in milli-seconds or faster. A ten MW fluctuation in a 2000 MW system is\u00a0 just a half\u00a0 percent fluctuation!

So the human error\u201d is merely the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. The 2000MW system should have\u00a0 a peak to trough daily fluctuation of, say,\u00a0 plus or minus 500 MW, and these are scheduled changes\u201d handled by the grid using set procedures\u00a0 for load adding and load shedding. But the system cannot handle other inputs because there is no monitoring system!

So the CEB\u00a0 power system is not a smart grid controlled\u00a0 by an intelligent set of algorithms that deftly and rapidly manipulate well maintained\u00a0\u00a0 on-load tap\u201d changers, shunts, relays and switches. Instead focusing on such realities, we are told that a superintendent accidentally earthed a live\u00a0 line and the system collapsed, almost like a cheap Wesak Pandol without a fuse built by the village Baas\u201d. Such system has no protective mechanisms for such events!\u00a0 The\u00a0 Baas\u201d and the CEB\u00a0 technicians both seem to work without written-down procedures or risk management protocols. Is the CEB\u00a0 just managing\u201d, riding the cusp of the blame for neglecting to modernize it and maintain it.

There is hardly a scientific paper or engineering report published by CEB scientists\u00a0 and engineers in peer-reviewed technical journals of, say, the IEEE, that would report the evolution of the\u00a0 CEB’s control systems, its many blackouts etc. In effect, the officials have worked like Baas Unnaeheys\u201d, with no Research and Development (R&D) or establishing a learning curve. Although five blackouts have occurred since 2009, does the CEB have in-house\u201d capacity to simulate such events? Why does it have to call a Canadian or some outside company to simulate such breakdowns?\u00a0 CEB’s only R&D\u201d seems\u00a0 to be to host an occasional student working with a University Professor to do research that costs a dime.

The CEB boasts of some 22 major hydro-electric stations. But it has not acquired the knowledge to, say, innovate a new pilot plant better fitted to the needs of the country.\u00a0 If such competence had been acquired, it could\u00a0 export its knowledge and win tenders in foreign lands!

So the CEB and its affiliates constitute an UNTHINKING beast that generates, transmits and sells power, and calls for tenders when needed within the standard frame of available ready-made\u201d power plants. Anything beyond that set path, even a modest roof-top solar panel, gives the creature a heart attack.

Is there a Wealthy CEB Mafia\u201d?<\/strong>
The public talks of\u00a0 a power mafia leading a high life\u201d in the CEB. The blackout has even been linked to conspiracies! A Derana TV discussion labeled the CEB\u00a0 a fifth power\u201d that can hold the country to ransom!

However, the CEB can point to successive governments that have scuttled their plans. Though building a power plant may take just a couple of years, the\u00a0 approval, tenders, acquiring land and licenses may add decades.

The government can change every five years.\u00a0 Sri Lanka\u00a0 periodically changes\u00a0 governments and the new politicians discredit and\u00a0 smash the\u00a0 plans of their predecessors.\u00a0 Power plants proposed in the 1980s have been canceled, re-approved and new tenders called by politicians since the time of Premada, through Kumaratunga, to Rajapaksa and Sirisena a dozen times!

The CEB engineers can say, if\u00a0 we only had that excess capacity\u201d then these blackouts wouldn’t have happened!\u00a0 On the face of it, this might indeed be true. But this is irrelevant given Dr. Siyambalapitiya’s admission that the system cannot even handle a 0.5% power fluctuation from un-monitored\u201d sources like solar and wind\u201d.

We now understand the foot dragging of the CEB in incorporating Wind, Solar and bio-energy. The grid is an ad hoc patchwork of wires connecting a bunch of power stations in the simplest manner possible. It is\u00a0 a STUPID grid when a SMART grid that collects its own data and servo-controls the supply and demand is needed.

The engineers, taken individually, are technically capable well-trained\u00a0 people whose integrity\u00a0 must be accepted\u00a0 until proven otherwise. They are not political appointees like some secretaries to ministers. But clearly, they have failed to maintain a healthy power grid and this is not simply because new power plants have not been built. There seems to be a culture of neglect\u00a0 and mismanagement. They have taken advantage of the fact that politicians have created chaos to avoid admitting\u00a0 their own failings. So, what has gone wrong?

How to correct the mess.<\/strong>
Given the finances of the CEB, it MUST be guided by its own vibrant research arm with in-house research, pilot projects\u00a0 and research publications.
The research arm can advise and devise best practices for the CEB ro operate.

\u00a0If industries like Tea and Rubber can have their research institutes, how can the power sector which dominates Sri Lanka’s foreign expenditure not have one? The CEO’s of the CEB are\u00a0 unforgivably guilty of not establishing such a research arm.\u00a0 The first task of R&D should be to\u00a0 to create a smart grid\u00a0 with automatic data collection at a large number of monitoring stations within months.

Unlike in the old days when power engineering was the strength of a power utility, today the Information Technology division plays a key role. The CEB\u00a0 R&D branch should\u00a0 work on new technologies like solar power.\u00a0 The public must not grudge high salaries and attractive perks to top engineers and researchers who produce new research, build pilot plants and usher in new technology. Here we are not talking of bureaucrats who spin narratives to justify ongoing failures.

Practical ways to cut costs, and boost hydro and solar to meet targets. <\/strong>
A large fraction (usually over 50%) of the cost of a unit of power goes for the generation step, and\u00a0 additional costs arise in transmission and marketing.\u00a0 The generation cost of hydro-electricity in Lanka is about Rs 2 to 4 per unit. Clean coal and dendro energy (biomass energy, see :
https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/05\/23\/rebooting-agriculture-to-provide-clean-practical-solutions-to-sri-lankas-energy-crisis-ii<\/a> )
\u00a0 may cost Rs 12 per unit, while fossil fuels (LNG or Diesel) need Rs 20-30\u00a0 per unit.\u00a0 Today, a unit of solar or wind energy may be less than Rs 10 for large scale installations. Of these,\u00a0 hydro, wind, solar, and dendro are the only environmentally acceptable energy sources.

Clearly the best option is hydroelectricity. Although most hydro sources are already tapped, there is at least a 30% increase possible with very little effort.
This is because\u00a0 hydroelectric installations have been designed\u00a0 with no though for conservation of water, the most important asset of any hydro-system. Engineers rarely\u00a0 think about losses of water\u00a0 from evaporation, although this is a very serious problem.

I have written much about floating solar installations since 2009 and why they are particularly suitable for Sri Lanka. Even in a\u00a0 recent article in the Island as well as the Lankaweb (https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/05\/06\/clean-practical-solutions-to-sri-lankas-energy-crisis-i<\/a>)\u00a0 I wrote about\u00a0 the advantages of floating solar panels which cuts evaporation of water, generate electricity, and provide the land area needed for installation of new solar panels, without the need for complicated land acquisition steps or dealing with\u00a0 the private properties of hundreds of roof-top owners. In fact India,\u00a0 Europe and China are increasingly using this approach. It opens up mass-scale installation of solar panels and economies of scale, bringing down the cost of production of a unit of electricity (a kWh)\u00a0 to less than Rs 10.

\u00a0The CEB is gung ho\u201d for building floating (off-shore) LNG storage units and coupling them with pipelines dangerously passing through busy urban areas to deliver fuel\u00a0 to a new 300 MW power plant. And yet, it does not seem to be able to put floats and cover hydro-electric reservoirs to prevent the evaporation of the water that occurs day and night! Evaporation will get even worse with global warming. But the CEB has no plans for global warming.

So, preventing evaporation will rapidly increase the island’s power capacity by, say, 30% .\u00a0 Given some 22 major hydroelectric reservoirs with a surface area of about 1000 ha each, if 50% of the surface be covered using floats, 11,000 ha (110 sq km) are protected. It can be shown that the environmental impact is positive. The annual\u00a0 hydro-power of about 6000 GWh will rise to 8000 GWh when evaporation is cut. This is the cheapest and cleanest electricity!

Typically,\u00a0 sunlight can annually produce about 100-200 GWh per sq. km (100 ha) under Sri Lanka’s conditions. If solar panels are also placed on the floaters deployed to cut evaporation, then 1000-2000 GWh per annum\u00a0 of solar energy can be harvested, with no hassle about acquiring land rights. Any excess daytime energy can be saved by retaining the corresponding amount of hydro-head in the reservoirs, without sending the reservoir water down into the turbines. That is, solar electricity has been stored without batteries!

Of course, this kind of fine tuning and optimal control cannot be done using the stupid\u201d grid that is available to the CEB at the moment!

[The author has published over a hundred research papers on high-energy density matter and topics on laser-assisted fusion energy, often in collaboration with scientists at the French Atomic Energy Commission & Electricit\u00e9 de France, the US Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, and the US Los Alamos Laboratory.]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Chandre Dharmawardana Sri Lanka recently had a nationwide blackout that cost millions and even compromised its security. A blackout may be compared to a sudden heart attack, leaving a debilitated individual. This was the fifth\u00a0 heart attack\u201d suffered by the grid since the end of the Eelam wars, with blackouts in\u00a0 2009, 2015, twice […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-106099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chandre-dharmawardana"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106099\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}