Abstract
Sri Lanka is currently developing coal fired power plants. Currently one coal power plant is in operation with an installed capacity of 3 units each of 300 MW. The Long Term Generation Plan 2013-2032, indicates that there will be 14 new coal power generating units to be introduced to the power system in future. In Sri Lanka, the electricity demand rapidly varies with time. The daily load curve shows a minimum of 1,000 MW at off-peak, and 2,150 MW at peak. Such rapid variations cause base load coal power plants to be operated with lower efficiency during low demand hours. Such situations create an opportunity for storage mechanisms. Pumped storage power plants (PSPPs) is one of such storage power plant that could be deployed in Sri Lanka. The country’s natural geography is suitable to facilitate nearly 5,000MW of PSPPs and some attractive sites have already been identified. Most importantly, some of them can be designed as the Pumped Storage Power Plant Complexes (PSPPC). A common large upper pond or lower pond can be utilized by two or more lower ponds or upper ponds forms a PSPPC. The economic viability of having PSPPs in Sri Lanka can improve with such PSPP complexes. This paper discusses the basic design principles of proposed PSPPs and PSPPCs in Sri Lanka.
Highlights
That country’s economy depends on electricity supply; Sri Lanka has reached the national electrification ratio of 99.5%
The high water level (HWL) is determined by using the storage capacity curves shown in Figure 6, Figure 7, adding the low water level (LWL) to the available drawdown corresponding to the effective storage capacities are obtained by Eq
The nature has blessed with several natural locations which are suitable for developing Pumped Storage Power Plants
Summary
That country’s economy depends on electricity supply; Sri Lanka has reached the national electrification ratio of 99.5% . The maximum demand is around 2164MW while the installed capacity is 3362MW (Statistical Digest 2013, CEB).Sri Lanka has to run expensive thermal power in the peak demand time. Sri Lanka has 900MW coal power plants but cannot run them efficiently at full load during late night off-peak time and some hours during the day, too. In year 2013, peak demand is around 2,150MW while off peak is around 1,000MW This off-peak demand is maintained by the utility by giving special off-peak tariffs for medium and large customer. That means peak tariff is four times the off-peak tariff; both figures do not reflect the actual cost electricity. By reducing the peaks of the load curve using PSPP, Sri Lanka may be able to produce cheap electricity, while giving actual cost reflective, lower tariff to customers. A common large upper pond or lower pond can be utilized by two or more lower ponds or upper ponds, to form a PSPP complex
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