Electricity cost is higher in Sri Lanka than several other Asian countries: Asian Development Bank

COLOMBO (News 1st) - A recent energy sector assessment published by the Asian Development Bank said, electricity supply costs in Sri Lanka were much higher than Bangladesh, Indonesia, Nepal, Oman, and Thailand. The report said that the majority of street lighting equipment was of poor quality and badly maintained resulting in very high energy wastage. In 2016, the Ceylon Electricity Board had incurred Rs.2,954mn for public street lighting. The CEB which allows public street lighting as free energy had distributed this cost across all customers. However, the report added, whether the costs incurred brings about the expected services is questionable, owing to the shortcoming stated, most of which remain unresolved. The report further revealed, CEB annual reports do not indicate subsidies received from the government to bridge the revenue shortfall. The report added, while the generation requirements currently grow at rates around 4% annually, no major power plant has entered construction, since the construction of the Lakvijaya Power Plant. The ADB also warned, with no power plants of significant capacity entering the construction phase for 11 years from 2007 to 2018, Sri Lanka will face serious generation capacity deficits and the existing power plants will continue to operate on diesel fuel for several years to come. The estimated incremental cost of diesel fuel against LNG would be about $150 million annually by 2020. The world consumes 65% more coal today than it did in the year 2000. The International Energy Agency expects global coal demand to decline in 2019 but remain broadly stable over the next five years. The future of coal will be largely decided in Asia, whose share in global coal power generation has risen from just over 20% in 1990 to almost 80% in 2019. Addressing emissions from Asia’s coal use is critical for the success of any global efforts to tackle climate change.