The design of a sustainable efficient lighting program for Sri Lanka

Abstract

In each year, electricity distribution expands through various requirements such as state sponsored rural electrification schemes and other interventions, connecting more consumers to the national grid, means the demand growth at the end of each year. The main challenge facing the CEB will be the rising price of oil and the generation capacity shortage. Generation capacity additions are required every year to keep pace with the increasing demand. Unless cheaper solutions are developed to meet this electricity demand, the financial burden of fuel oil based power generation will further strangle the government owned CEB. Importance of demand side management strategies have rapidly grown in the context of rising oil prices as well as extensive delays in implementing low cost electricity generation projects. Especially as a developing country, saving of energy has much more advantages. This report proposes to maximize the usage of existing capacity by introducing a sustainable lighting programme to popularize the use of efficient lighting devices among the consumers as energy development, which will offset the adverse impacts. The most economically effective method to achieve this goal is to introduce compact fluorescent lights among the consumers. That is because while a regular (incandescent) light bulb uses heat to produce light, a fluorescent bulb creates light using an entirely different method that is far more energy-efficient - in fact, 4-6 times more efficient. It can be easily implemented if a CFL bulb is priced as per the incandescent bulb price and distributed through CEB depot / offices.