In Conversation with Mr. Damitha Kumarasinghe, Director General, Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka @ #REMasterTalks – EQ Mag Pro

We at team RE MasterTalk bring you an exclusive interview with Mr. Damitha Kumarasinghe, Director General, Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka. He was very kind to spare some time from his busy schedule and discuss about Sri Lanka’s Renewable Energy Sector with Mr. Amit Sharma.

Here is the sneak-peak of the conversation

Please read as below

AS: Mr. Amit Sharma.

DK: Mr. Damitha Kumarasinghe

AS: Welcome Mr Kumar to RE Master Talks. Thank you sir it’s a pleasure to have you here and without wasting too much of the time I would directly come to the point now

We are talking about the net-zero plans coming into action and Sri Lanka eying for 70 percent of all its energy requirement by renewable energy by 2030 and further setting a target of 2050 to achieve a net-zero carbon emission how do you as an individual and as a government representative, see the potential of investments happening in the island country in the coming future?

DK: Yes, actually as you said Sri Lanka has a very clear policy now for renewable energy or the future of energy now we have set 70 percent from renewable by 2030 and carbon zero by 2050 so during the next decade we need actually triple the installed capacity so we need about 8000 to 10000 mw of solar, wind and other renewables to be installed in the country. Currently, we have about 4000 MW installed so even though this is a small system, the procurement systems, and other technical aspects need to be sorted out in order to have this leap towards renewable energy, also if you look at the investment potential there’s a lot of intuition from the local as well as the international players coming into the Sri Lanka market. Also, we have called for I mean sustainable energy authority has called for expressions for of interest for projects over 50 MW and the response is very encouraging and therefore we expect to achieve this target by 2030 and also currently the government is looking at promoting electrical mobility, electric vehicles as a part of this carbon zero target and for that also we need a lot of energy to be generated from renewable energy, so we are looking at the entire system of replacing fossil fuel with renewable energy as much as possible and I know it’s a steep target but we are confident that we can achieve that.

AS: We look forward to that so now with the set targets to achieve net-zero carbon emission it also opens the door to a lot of investment opportunities so how is the country equipping itself to the ease of doing business per se government policies, financing, land availability, rooftops or per se electric vehicles, mobile charging stations as in the charging stations for the vehicles, how is the country equipping itself to the ease of doing business?

DK: Actually, as I said now the targets are clearly set, the policy is very clear where we are heading so now the relevant agencies including the public humanities commission, are preparing the subsidiary legislation and the standards and the other procedures that are required. And also the public utility commission has already prepared the standards for electric vehicle charging stations and the procedures for implementation of those so that on that side the private sector has enormous potential to invest. Also regarding the investment, we are going to make the legislation the subsidiary legislation and the standards very transparent so that investors feel comfortable in engaging with Sri Lanka and on the transportation side apart from the charging stations I mean the vehicle, the standards on vehicles and the emission standards all are being looked into at the moment

AS: Great! so I understand you know the policies are coming into action there’s a lot of frameworks which is coming into work, in fact, I’ve been to Sri Lanka and I’ve seen there are a lot of electric vehicles also there so how strong is the push in Sri Lanka towards the EV sector and more towards battery storage

DK: Regarding electric vehicles, they have a huge strength towards electric vehicles starting around 2015. So but later lately that enthusiasm has gone down a little bit now since government has very clearly uh set up the targets and the policy for transportation uh it will pick up uh quite quickly

AS: Sri Lanka has a lot of electric vehicles but is Sri Lanka also looking forward to battery storage?

DK: Battery storage is looked at in a very serious way and even the expressions of interest called by sustainable energy, recently battery storage was a part of that also so currently as a country and as utilities all these entities are looking at the implementation of battery storage very seriously and there are a lot of studies going on on the grid and other applications of battery storage

AS: How do you see India as a partner towards your renewable energy and clean energy goals?

DK: India is moving very rapidly towards renewable energy over the last decade or so and a lot of investments are going into India with large renewable energy projects and as India is the closest country to us we are looking forward to Indian investments to come in as well as the there has been a dialogue for all for a long time on India Sri Lanka HVDC interconnection I think that is also being discussed to absorb energy and have connectivity to south Asia regional grid and also a lot of Indian investors have already expressed their willingness to invest in Sri Lanka in large scale renewable energy projects so we are looking very positively on that

AS: I think it will surely boost the Indian investment part also in Sri Lanka with the ease of doing business as you’ve just narrated the government is very proactive with the policies in Sri Lanka for the investments so I think the investors in India would be looking forward to being part of the Sri Lankan investment plans and clean and clean green energy so my last question you know which I would want you to know one thing which you would personally want to push for the RE and clean energy space keeping the future generations in mind

DK: yes actually there are a few things when you consider currently incurred in the Sri Lankan system power system for generating renewable energy happen to be the cheapest source at this point of time with all fossil fuel base generation is much more expensive and they are in escalating pricing trend whereas the renewable side the stable low going down so we are very much interested in many sides many aspects to promote renewable energy one is the cost aspect the other one is the environmental aspects and also looking at the betterment of future generations through achieving higher set targets of the government on renewable energy.

AS: Though I said that that was the last question, I would add on to a little bit more, how do you see the prospect of bioenergy in Sri Lanka because I see that bioenergy has also been pushed a lot into the Sri Lankan market and this has been one of the oldest forms of energy also in Sri Lanka

DK: yeah actually if you look at the entire energy landscape of Sri Lanka about 50 percent of the total energy comes from bioenergy so mostly not in the form of electricity but generating heat aspect as well so but I think in the future to come solar and wind will go into creating a huge space in energy generation and the bioenergy has its place and given the fact that people are very comfortable with it they will use it in at their domestic level for their energy requirements true right

So this is the method we look forward to you know to connect with you more often and rather personally so thank you so much for your time I look forward to soon meeting you and meeting not just you meeting our friends in Sri Lanka and us associates as well and we wish you a very happy new year with health and happiness. Thank you.