Norochcholai is crying for treatments again

Norochcholai coal based thermal power plant of 300 MW has gone out of service from yesterday morning (Tuesday 29th January). Norocholai has been facing frequent interruptions in its operation, failing to ensure a continuous contribution to the national electricity system. Being a significant supplier of power, with a capacity of 300MW, absence of such power plant can instigate planned power cuts, due to lack of supply. Norochcholai is not the only horizontal shaft driven thermal power plant in Sri Lanka. Kerawalapitiya and Kelanithissa combined cycle power plants with similar systems (other than there difference in generation of steam and minor differences in capacities) are at a considerable operational standard, questioning the quality of the coal power plant. The reason for this outage...

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Posted in: Power System

Crown your company with energy efficiency _ National energy award

Enhancing awareness and advancing technical expertise on energy conservation is a very important aspect in moving forward towards an energy conscious nation. This was a key requirement in establishing the Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority (SLSEA) in October 2007, with the enacting of the Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority Act No. 35 in 2007. Through this institutional authority, both the industrial sector and the general public are gaining many benefits regarding energy and its applications. The Energy Management division of the SLSEA carries out its activities with a long term target of reducing 20% of energy consumed in the year 2010, by 2020. Programmes of a national scale are conducted to achieve this milestone. The activities...

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Posted in: Sustainable Energy and Policy

Norochcholai Coal Power Plant - In retrospect - Coal Vs Renewable

Why invest in a coal fired power plant when Sri Lanka is enriched with natural resources like sun, wind and water which could be used to produce electricity? This would be a basic question that springs in the mind of a person when talking about Norochcholai coal power plant. So it would be a better starting point to launch this series of articles in which an overview of Norochcholai coal power plant would be presented to the readers. Back to the original question, Why use coal which is a fossil fuel to produce electricity when renewable resources are available in this country in abundance. Let’s analyse this step by step. First, what are the merits of renewables and demerits of coal which is the main base of the argument against coal...

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Posted in: Power System

Know your meter

Not a stranger, but while treated most of the times even worse than a stranger, the billing officer is used to visit our places once a month. It’s most of the times antagonizing to see a substantial amount written on the bill, especially when we feel that we didn’t consume THAT MUCH !! But the problem is how we identify THAT MUCH quantity? The small device the billing officer looking at, while pressing the buttons of his calculator and taking down notes, is colloquially known as the “Meter”. But ideally, it should be the Domestic Electrical Energy Meter. However, the electricity bill itself refers to this device as the “Meter” (Doubt me? Just have a glance at the electricity bill of the last month), authenticating the use of...

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Posted in: Utility and Social

Energyzee Cabled at Sierra

Conductor Selection is a task of major importance in design of electrical installations and distribution systems. In doing so, initially the designers have to determine whether to use Copper or Aluminum as the conductor material, depending on the design requirements and considering the availability of such conductors from the suppliers. After that, proper sizes of the conductors to be used are selected by considering the installation method, Insulation material, required current carrying capacity, required mechanical strength, Maximum operating temperature and the ambient temperature of the operating environment. Maintaining the voltages within the statutory limits is also a must and designers of electrical installations and distribution...

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Posted in: Electrical Industry

Star Rating of CFL in Sri Lanka

The Compact Florescent Lamps (CFL) are widely used in the world as well as in Sri Lanka for domestic, commercial and industrial lighting. They are considered as energy savers over the conventional incandescent lamps yet it is questionable whether CFLs produced by different manufacturers which has diverse market prices meet the same quality, output of light and energy saving. Therefore, choosing a cheap, energy efficient CFL which will emit required amount of light had been a tough task for the consumers. The Star Rating of CFL is introduced and regulated by the government to avoid this complexity faced by the consumers in buying CFLs. The Star Rating basically eases the consumers compare CFLs from different manufacturers having different...

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Posted in: Sustainable Energy and Policy