Homepage >>
Spotlight on Energy Forum
Interview with Ms Wathsala Herath, Administrative Officer of Energy Forum
1) What type of organisation is yours (ie. SME), what are your objectives, who are you aimed at and where are you working?
The Energy Forum (Guarantee) Limited is an NGO working as a network of private, public and civil society organisations in Sri Lanka to create an environment conducive to supporting and implementing renewable and distributed energy, energy efficiency and integrated sustainable resource management mechanisms to alleviate poverty, to address energy capacity deficiencies, and to protect the environment.
Energy Forum strives for enhanced community access to viable and sustainable energy services and options for improved quality of life.
Energy Forum primarily works in rural communities in various districts of Sri Lanka and focuses on both renewable energy options and integrated sustainable waste management. Its programmes aim to address energy, poverty and climate change issues by establishing private- public and civil society partnerships.
The Energy Forum conducts a wide-range of activities including networking, research, awareness building, information collection and dissemination, lobbying for policy changes at a national level, grassroots institution building, capacity building, technology dissemination, pilot testing on technologies and direct implementation activities.
2) How has your organisation impacted on energy access in these areas? How have peoples’ lives been improved?
The Energy Forum plays an active role as an organisation specialising in the field of energy and waste management and has made significant contributions to the promotion of renewable energy technologies and delivery systems and sustainable waste management practices.
Energy Forum strives for enhanced community access to viable and sustainable energy services and options for improved quality of life.
Energy Forum primarily works in rural communities in various districts of Sri Lanka and focuses on both renewable energy options and integrated sustainable waste management. Its programmes aim to address energy, poverty and climate change issues by establishing private- public and civil society partnerships.
The Energy Forum conducts a wide-range of activities including networking, research, awareness building, information collection and dissemination, lobbying for policy changes at a national level, grassroots institution building, capacity building, technology dissemination, pilot testing on technologies and direct implementation activities.
2) How has your organisation impacted on energy access in these areas? How have peoples’ lives been improved?
The Energy Forum plays an active role as an organisation specialising in the field of energy and waste management and has made significant contributions to the promotion of renewable energy technologies and delivery systems and sustainable waste management practices.
photo courtesy - Energy Forum- Micro Hydro
With regard to energy access, the Energy Forum has been active in programmes involving provision of renewable energy services to both on-grid and off-grid Sri Lankan communities. Energy Forum has actively promoted off-grid renewable energy technologies such as Solar PV, village hydro, dendro (biomass) power, bio-gas & wind through activities such as creating awareness of renewable energy at the community level and building capacity of the technology and service providers. It has conducted pilot testing of dendro and biogas power and developed and introduced suitable financing packages for lending for renewable energy schemes. Through its Power Fund for the Poor project, Energy Forum worked in collaboration with two microfinance institutions to disburse 7,009 electricity grid connection loans totalling over SLR 100 million to poor households to enable them to access the electricity supply.
An important achievement of Energy Forum was the establishment of the Federation of Electricity Consumer Societies (FECS) which is a community organisation that functions through the joint action of Electricity Consumer Societies attached to isolated rural hydro electricity plants distributed throughout Sri Lanka. The FECS has an active membership of 130 Electricity Consumer Societies and its Executive Committee consists of 12 members representing 6 districts in Sabaragamuwa, Southern and Uva Provinces, 4 Provincial Energy Officials and 2 National level experts. 10,250 families currently obtain electricity from these plants, covering a total population of around 51,000. The FECS was designed to help Electricity Consumer Societies collectively overcome some of the challenges they face in maintaining these rural hydro plants and to provide them with practical guidance and assistance.
To date, the FECS has been able to successfully resuscitate 16 projects which had been neglected and abandoned. 27 societies have taken up economic activities using the extra electricity generated from a hydro unit during the day. 97 societies have built skills in concrete-post production and have worked in coordination with the Sabaragamuwa Provincial Council. They currently produce approximately 40,000 concrete posts per year, which also helps prevent the cutting of trees which would have otherwise been used as electricity poles. The ECSs also provide a vital service to the community and the alternative energy sector as a whole, as they maintain a national database on details regarding their societies island-wide.
3) Where do you aim to go from here? Are you hoping to expand, develop etc?
The Energy Forum has already initiated a dialogue at national level on promoting renewable energy technologies, both on-grid and off-grid. It is planning to further strengthen the dialogue and ensure that the government is not going ahead with proposed fossil fuel power plants and focus more on renewable energy technologies and energy conservation. As the first step Energy Forum is keen on establishing a grid connected dendro power plant with an out-grower system for fuel wood supply.
The Local Authorities in Sri Lanka that are responsible for managing waste are incapable of handling the waste however they are reluctant to develop partnerships with private sector and civil society organizations for establishing ISWM mechanisms. The Energy Forum has already done demonstration projects for partnership building and is planning to develop the capacity of Local Authorities on developing partnerships with private sector and civil society for managing waste.
4) Are you currently involved in a specific project, if yes, can you describe it (if several, the most relevant one) and explain the benefits/impact on the people?
Energy Forum recently completed a project funded by the World Bank on Village Dendro Systems in Sri Lanka. The purpose of this programme was to review the current state of the dendro power sector in Sri Lanka, to assess Energy Forum's role in sharing knowledge about and strengthening the sector, and finally to assist in the expansion of the sector by linking income generation activities to Village Dendro Schemes (VDS) and designing cost effective and affordable domestic electrical appliances packages that meet the needs of VDS electricity consumers.
The study conducted under this project reviewed pre-existing Village Dendro Schemes in order to design a list of “best practices” for future schemes and conducted a survey of potential off-grid, dendro-power sites in two of the provinces in Sri Lanka’s dry zone. The main goal was to make VDS attractive as a mainstream off-grid renewable technology option. Energy Forum promoted this by building partnerships and developing and establishing visible results through several pilot projects which have electrified a number of off-grid villages.
5) How do you feel GVEP International can help you in the future?
Keep us up to date on any energy issues and advancements.
Function as an international network of grass-root energy sector initiatives.
Help us raise our profile for donors and potential project partners who would like to work with us in Sri Lanka.
6) Is there any other information you would like to add in regarding your organisation?
The Energy Forum has create a dialogue on appropriate sustainable development approaches with a view of exploring green energy and mitigation of climate change impacts on developing countries among stakeholders. The dialogue has been linked and integrated with economic and human development activities related to the other aspects of development and increased quality of life for the people including rural communities. The Energy Forum believes that this dialogue will bring a new paths of green production and consuming habits and tools for evaluating real development initiatives in this part of the world as well as in the global context. Our website address is www.efsl.lk