Seminar on electricity generation from renewable energy –
experiences and requirements
Committee room A, BMICH, 28th February 2009, from 8:30 am onwards
1. Introduction
The green deal of the renewable energy attempts to address the economic and security issues
instead of reliance on oil and the imminent peak oil crisis. This will drive an environmental
transformation towards green face. Therefore the renewable energy has come to very high
potential in all over the world.
Most of the renewable energy comes either directly or indirectly from the sun. In contrast,
renewable energy such as wind and solar energy are constantly replenished and will never run
out. Small hydro based on run-on-river and biomass techniques are well proven power
generation and they are having the challenges of finding input to the generations.
When considered the electricity generation, these renewable had several impacts due to their
dependence on natural environment. Especially wind and solar are having serious problems due
to rapid power fluctuation due to intermittent natural inputs due to nature. Therefore the grid
operators have challenges on integrating them at large scale.
This seminar will bring the experts, who have experience on (i) operating small hydro power
plants, (ii) developing sites for wind power plants, (iii) implementation and operational
experience on biomass power plants, (iv) research study on renewable energy in Sri Lanka, (v)
research study on grid integration of renewable plants, (vi) power quality of renewable energy
plants, (vii) pricing renewable energy purchase, (viii) structuring the electricity companies and
(ix) off grid operation of renewable plants.
The participants will be mostly from CEB and other will includes renewable energy plant
managers, academic researchers, plant developers, research students. Therefore this seminar will
speak on experiences of plant operations, problems, recent development and improvement on
renewable energy technologies and requirements for their optimized operations. This will brings
all knowledge together as a unique and informative seminar on the topic of electricity generation
from renewable energy sources.
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This seminar will cuts through the confusion and complexity of renewable power generation.
Also it will help clarifying the options for a sustainable energy future. This will support the
development of the country, which seeks to develop an economic paradigm for the next decade
that takes social and environmental priorities into account in terms of electricity generation.
2. Keynote speakers
Very important key position holders of the Ceylon Electricity Board and Sri Lanka Sustainable
Energy Authority will be invited as keynote speakers. The arrangement on keynote speakers is
in the process and this list will be submitted once the acceptance is received from the speakers.
This speech will be limited to 10 minutes per person.
3. Resource persons, proposed title and synopsis
Professor Kumar David
Emeritus Professor of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Hong Kong Polytechnic
University, Hong Kong.
Title of the seminar: Appropriate restructuring of the electricity supply industry
Professor H Sriyananda
Emeritus Professor of Electrical Engineering, Department of Electrical and Computer
Engineering, Faculty of Engineering Technology, The Open University of Sri Lanka.
Title of the seminar: Meeting the energy needs of a future Sri Lanka - conflicts and their
resolution
Professor S Sivasegaram
Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of
Engineering, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka.
Title of the seminar: Responsible use should precede new sources
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Professor Ranjit Perera
Director General, Public Utilities Commission, Sri Lanka.
Title of the seminar: Tariff Options for Better Performance
Mr. K. A. Noel Priyantha
Chief Engineer (Renewable Energy), Ceylon Electricity Board, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Title of the seminar: Grid connected renewable plants in Sri Lanka and Pricing
Mr. Sinith Fernando
Consultant, Resource Management Associates (Pvt) Limited, 3 Charles Terrace, Colombo
3, Sri Lanka.
Title of the seminar: Project development experience in wind power plants
Mr. Parakrama Jayasinghe
President, Bio-Energy Association of Sri Lanka.
Title of the seminar: Project development experience in bio-energy power plants
Mr. Prabath Wickramasinghe
Head, Hydro project, Hayleys group, Sri Lanka.
Title of the seminar: Project development experience in small hydro power plants
Mr. Namiz Musafer
Project manager, Practical Action, Colombo, Sri Lanka
Title of the seminar: Project development experience in off grid renewable energy plants
Dr. H. M. Wijekoon
Chief Engineer (Planning), Ceylon Electricity Board, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
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Title of the seminar: Power Quality Issues in Electricity Generation from Grid Connected
Renewable Energy Sources
Synopsis: Power quality is of particular interest for distributed renewable energy
generation for two reasons. First, the DGs are connected to distribution feeder rather than
to transmission lines and distribution feeders are not as electrically stiff and less able to
deal with a fluctuating energy sources. Secondly, utility customers are typically located on
the same distribution feeder, sometimes relatively close to the DG. Thus without
intervening substations or transmission lines, these customers are directly exposed to the
power quality problems originating from DGs. In this lecture, power quality of distributed
generators, their impacts and some mitigation techniques will be discussed.
Dr. A. Atputharajah
Senior Lecturer, Dept of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, University of Peradeniya,
Peradeniya, Sri Lanka.
Title of the seminar: Grid code for renewable energy integration
Synopsis: Grid code must be developed to define the system operations at the point of
connection. This will minimise the system disturbance while maximising the utilisation of
renewable plants. Basically the grid code defines the technical requirements that need to be
maintained by the operators of the renewable energy plant and national grid, at the point of
common coupling.
Mr. M. Anparasan
Secretary of the white paper drafting team, Engineering for Industries 2008, Dept of
Electrical & Electronic Engineering, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka.
Title of the seminar: Summery of the white paper developed on “policies for electricity
generation from renewable energy sources”
Synopsis: Summarising the information gathered from the white paper drafting discussion
carried out on the 20th September, 2008 at the Faculty of Engineering, University of
Peradeniya.
Dr. A. Atputharajah
Dr. M.A.R.M. Fernando
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