- Consumers taken for ride with high electricity bills
- Investors facing bottle necks
Ahmadabad: Sri Lanka’s energy mix is very disappointing as the country is still heavily dependent on fossil fuels such as diesel and not renewable energy sources, said Managing Director, Adani Energy Solutions, the largest private sector power transmission entity in India, Anil Sardana here on Saturday. The blame for this has to go to officials and not politicians, he said.
He said that Sri Lanka is a country that is filled with natural energy sources such as hydro, wind, ocean and solar which are available in plenty that could power the entire nation 100% sans any fossil fuels.
“But we observe the bottle necks investors face when trying to invest in these sectors due to the bureaucracy of officials who want to derail this process. It was to prove them wrong that we entered the Sri Lankan energy sector.”
He said that they too face these obstacles for their wind power plants in Mannar and Pooneryn and here again it is the negative mind set of these officials that are delaying reaping economic benefits to the country and not allowing the country to be 100% powered by renewable energy. It is a sad scenario where the consumer for nearly 60 years was taken for a ride paying for high electricity bills due to being forced to depend on fossil fuels. He said in Sri Lanka they have given a competitive bid and if anyone wants they could supply wind power at a lesser amount and if so Adani group is ready anytime to move out and pave the way for this lowest bidder.
Sardana also said that Sri Lanka should also try to invest in methods to extract green hydrogen which is a new source of natural energy. It is expected that non-fossil fuel generation contribution is likely to reach around 44.7% of the total gross electricity generation by 2029–30 in India. He also said that in addition to the logistical advantage of having high wind power potential they also selected Pooneryn and Mannar so that their development could usher economic benefits for the less affluent people. “In addition to providing employment we will also engage in a series of CSR initiatives in the area of health education and adding more infrastructure to people in these areas.”
An electrical engineering graduate from the University of Delhi Sardana’s academic career is as diversified as his vast experience in the infrastructure sector across Power Plants, EPC business, Coal Washeries, Power Transmission, Retail Power Distribution and Telecom. He also said that they have also invested in power plants in many parts of the world and in Bangladesh and begun supplying 748 MW of power.
Shirajiv Sirimane in India
