Cabinet nod for solar power systems at public institutions

Thursday, 7 December 2017 00:11 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Skandha Gunasekara

In accordance with the Soorya Bala Sangramaya program, the Cabinet of Ministers approved a project to install solar power systems at public institutions across the country.

Co-Cabinet Spokesman Minister of Lands and Parliamentary Reforms, Gayantha Karunatileka, told the weekly Cabinet press briefing that it was decided to award contracts for the installation of solar power systems to state institutions recommended by the Cabinet.

Consequently, 63 Government hospitals, 13 government schools, the Presidential Secretariat office, Prime Minister’s residence (Temple Trees), Ministry of Finance and Planning, Ministry of Provincial Councils and Local Governments, Ministry of National Policies and Economic Affairs, Ministry of Education (Isurupaya), Ministry of Public Management, the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) head office, Lanka Electricity Company Ltd. and the Millaniya Divisional Secretariat office will have solar power systems installed.

According to the Cabinet memorandum, it was decided to select companies that handled the installation of solar power systems for this project under 10 clusters, where each cluster will have an output of 200 KW of power.

Under this tender, each company is limited to award two clusters of 200KW.

The Ministry of Power and Renewable Energy launched a community-based power generation project titled ‘Soorya Bala Sangramaya’ (Battle for Solar Energy) in collaboration with the Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority (SLSEA), Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) and Lanka Electricity Company Ltd. (LECO) to promote the setting up of small solar power plants on the rooftops of households, religious places, hotels, commercial establishments and industries. The program is expected to add 200 MW of solar electricity to the national grid by 2020 and 1,000 MW by 2025.

Under this program, consumers will have the option to generate and use electricity in their premises while any excess electricity can be sold to the national grid or banked for later use.