ABSTRACT
Micro hydro has the potential of providing an alternative source of power supply to the rural population in Sri Lanka. However, this option is limited mainly to the central and southern hill country where the annual average rainfall is above 2000 mm.
Though Sri Lanka had immense experience in estate micro hydro, it was not thought as an option for rural electrification. Sri Lanka has a comprehensive rural electrification programme, which intends to supply much of the rural households with electricity. According to the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) work plan, 80% of rural households would be provided with grid power while the balance 20% to be supplied with renewable sources such as micro hydro, solar etc.
Innovative rural folks in many parts of central and southern hills had experimented with water wheels from natural stream flows or Irrigation canals to produce electricity.
However, it is only in 1990 an NGO called Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG) embarked on the task of developing village hydro as an option for rural electrification.
The key factor in the ITDG development approach is making the village beneficiaries responsible for the decision making process, actual implementation and post construction, operations and maintenance. The beneficiaries organized themselves into a Electricity Consumer Society (ECS) which acts as the prime decision making body. The approach adopted by ITDG entails that the civil and transmission cost of project implementation to be borne by the beneficiaries. In this respect the ECS decides on the initial monetary contributions by beneficiary households and the mode of participation in civil works. Initial contributions have varied between Rs. 500 - 3000/= per household among different projects. Participation in civil works is mainly by way of labour. Among the 16 implemented projects the labour contribution varies between 10%-42%. In many projects supply of electricity is dependant on the initial payment and active participation in civil works. On completion of the project the ECS decides on the amount of electricity usage. Usually the limit had been set at 100 watts per households but it varies between 40-120 watts depending on the capacity and number of beneficiary households. Deciding household tariff is the sole responsibility of the ECS. The present tariff rates vary between Rs. 0.5 - 1.0/= per watt per month. The decision on tariff is an economic dependant factor. The low tariff rates decided by ECS is an indication of the economic situation of the villagers. Unfortunately when tariff rates are decided the ECS does not take into account the cost of replacement of machinery at the end of its useful life period. When tariff was calculated according to an accepted formula, the actual tariff collection was less than the realistic tariff in at least 83% of the projects in operation.
Hence the decision taken by the ECS is purely based on the welfare of the community than sustainability of hardware. The present tariff collection incidently is adequate only for routine operation and maintenance. It is a common scenario in many projects that the ECS prefer to extend the supply to additional beneficiaries by using ECS funds for expansion than invest in productive end-uses to make projects more viable.
This paper attempts to analyze the degree of decision making by the Electricity Consumer Societies with respect to the rationality of the decision in terms of social welfare, institutional sustainable and economic viability. The information for the paper is based on annual monitoring of 16 micro-hydro projects currently under operation.
