Lanka targets 500 MW from NCRE by 2015

Colombo: The Ministry of Power and Energy said it would stick to the task of targeting 10 per cent (500 MW) of grid energy from Non Conventional Renewable Energy (NCRE) sources by 2015.

A CEB spokesman said that 2009 is certainly going to be a decisive year especially with regard to renewable energy sources and the Ministry would go all out to encourage such projects.

To date, nearly 144.392 MW of NCRE has been added to the system from 73 small scale projects another 41 small scale projects for generating of 104.45 MW of power is ready for commercial operation, following the signing of the Standardized Power Purchase Agreement with the Ceylon Electricity Board.

According to Power and Energy Minister W. D. J. Seneviratne, provincial approvals and letters of intent for 115 small scale projects to generate another 361.097 MW had been issued by the Sustainable Energy Authority (SEA) /CEB and they were waiting for final approvals from the SEA.

The government approved the adaptation of a multi-tier, cost based technology specific tariff to purchase electricity from NCRE projects including wind, mini hydro, biomass industrial waste, agriculture waste and municipal waste- recently.

He said this purchase tariff would be multi-tiered to cushion the high expense of a NCRE project the period of debt repayment and it would reflect a 22 per cent return on equity to the investor throughout the a 15-year period.

The CEB price for NCRE will be driven by the avoided cost of thermal energy which in turn is determined by oil and later coal prices.

According to CEB, the objectives of this pricing strategy was to provide a viable, predictable purchase tariff to NCRE developers in place of the present annually revised tariffs.