Why wait for a crisis when we can foresee and make sure it does not happen? POWER CRISIS

In my recent review of budget proposals, I realized the canard of the Environmental Budget that it claimed it was, BLUE AND GREEN, Oceans and Environment, we are ruining both and have no intention of reversing the irreversible!

That is there is NO substance in the well meaning words, 50 Electric Buses was a joke to start with, 2,000 may at least be a serious attempt at reducing the pollution.

So I suggested that the quickest means of alleviating the likelihood of a power crisis in Sri Lanka is to come up with measures that will immediately take hold to delay the inevitable and buy time for a longer term solution.

The powerful CEB lobby, don’t find renewables attractive, as there is no gravy train for them to live on at the expense of the people of Sri Lanka. Be it coal that has to power the Norochcholai station and their opposition to the cancelling of Sampur was proof that they wish to profit from the need to purchase coal and any contract to purchase anything involves a sharing of the spoils.

Similarly with the Kerawalpitiya Oil Fired Plant, where again this same lobby will profit handsomely from the purchase of oil, and again the Sri Lankan public has to foot the bill.

http://www.dailymirror.lk/article/PUCSL-warns-of-power-crisis--140654.html

The link above refers to the warning yesterday of an impending power crisis, as there is no contingency plan, and no one has taken the inevitable decision of getting renewable energy plants into operation in the short term (let me remind you that private sector in the US like Elon Musk was able to get a solar renewable power station in operation within months. You only have to Google to find the places and time frames) We have the sea around us and wave energy also goes abegging, and ANY OTHER country would have used what God has given to better use, than what we have done to date with this opportunity. Its GREED on the part of the CEB that has let the company down. Before we cut the whole of he CEB loose, and tell the Engineers to run it and charge the consumer, we must have alternatives to stand them up from their pompous pedestal.

So my suggestion of purchasing a good quality set of solar panels, the more the merrier, depending on available credit and funding, as these are currently going cheap due to overcapacity in China, which will soon consolidate, and possibly result in a price rise, the time is NOW to purchase US$10M or more at once, and distribute it amongst individuals and companies who are able to have an operational Solar Generation within a stipulated period, say between 6 months and I year, to receive a subsidy of 50% or more of the cost, and here the cost too is 50% of the price the Solar Energy Companies are selling these at, for a HUGE reduction in cost of converting to Solar, about half the present cost of the systems if one were to go out and get one from the Companies referred to above.

This is a win win situation both for the Person or Persons investing in this venture, it does not involve any government expense other than the one of cost of the Panels, and if it means a subsidy of 50% then the other 50% they receive could go immediately to purchase more panels to do the same, making it even more successful in reducing the pressure on the GRID.

Of course a PUNDIT in the CEB will say that is not enough as this is releasing excess power during the day, and what happens at night when we need the power, all you do is to use the excess energy you have unutilized during the day, to pump water back into the hydro reservoirs once discharged and run them at night at full strength! Why is it beyond the average intelligence of people to think of simple solutions to complicated problems? Because they are too simple for PhDs!