EESoc holds panel discussion on power quality and reliability

Power Quality and Reliability was the topic for the annual panel discussion organised by Electrical Engineering Society (EESoc) of the University of Moratuwa. This was held recently at Water’s Edge, Colombo with the participation of a panel of professional expertise.

The event was also graced by Power and Renewable Energy Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya as the chief guest, Power and Renewable Energy Ministry Secretary Dr. B.M.S. Batagoda, distinguished personnel from the University of Moratuwa and Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB).

To provide an entrance for the panel discussion, the results obtained from a series of surveys conducted by the EESoc on the public perception on power quality and reliability were presented initially. Following that, the moderator for the panel, Professor Ranjit Perera from the Department of Electrical Engineering University of Moratuwa summoned the panellists for the discussion. 

Lanka Electricity Company General Manager Eng. H.N. Gunasekara spoke on the economic perspective of reliability. Expressing the views on the challenges in achieving power supply reliability, CEB Transmission Planning Division Chief Engineer Dr. H.M. Wijekoon mentioned that the CEB’s first priority at this point is on rural electrification and the second is the power system reliability, while noting the regulatory and implementation challenges in achieving reliability. 

Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka Director General Eng. Damitha Kumarasinghe confirmed that the regulator is almost ready to get through the regulatory challenges previously mentioned by Dr. Wijekoon. Vividly explaining ‘quality in electricity’ as a single term of both power quality and reliability, Eng. Damitha said that it is a combination of power quality, supply quality and service quality.

However, the regulator’s role in achieving this is to setup relevant regulations, rules and standards and, monitor them. Providing a comparison between local and international perspectives of the topic, Dr. Dharshana Muthumini, Managing Director of Manitoba HVDC Research Centre of Canada explained that the international practice in maximizing power system quality and reliability is thorough long-term and short-term planning.

Finally the premier energy consultant in the country, Dr. Tilak Siyambalapitiya, the Managing Director of Resource Management Associated Pvt. Ltd. took his opportunity to speak on the way forward with power system reliability and quality in the customer perspective. Speaking on the methodology to achieve the topic on hand, Dr. Siyambalapitiya said the first step is measurement of available reliability and quality, so that it can be properly understood and hence can control it. He emphasized the need of a comprehensive plan for reliability improvement of the network with a sound propaganda for setting time targets and monitoring implementation. Once all the panellists have presented their ideas, the open discussion round raised a number of questions from the audience.

Eng. Anura Wijepala, Chairman of Ceylon Electricity Board sitting in the audience revealed CEB’s interest in getting to the track of reliability improvement whilst working on its other programs in operation. 

With the limitation of available time, the annual EESoc panel discussion came to an end with a number of important recommendations for improvement of power system reliability and quality. However, this can be considered only as the initial effort in a long way ahead, with the objective of drawing the attention of the responsible authorities to the next step in the power sector. Now, it is their responsibility to start planning, interacting all the relevant parties to setup a sound propaganda to improve the power quality and reliability to satisfy the consumer.