|
Sri Lanka ENERGY
![[PDF]](http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/pdf.gif)
Figure 9. Industry, Mining, and Power, 1988
Over 70 percent of the island's total energy consumption was
satisfied by firewood, agricultural residues, and animal waste,
mostly for household use. The country had no coal or petroleum
deposits, and the only other indigenous energy source was
hydropower.
In 1927 the Department of Government Electrical Undertakings,
now called the Ceylon Electricity Board, took over the
transmission of electricity throughout the country. Hydroelectric
power came into use in 1951 with the commissioning of the
Laksapana project in Central Province. Demand for power increased
from approximately 20 megawatts in 1951 to nearly 73 megawatts in
1963, about 90 percent of which was met from hydroelectric
sources. In the 1970s, the island increasingly came to rely on
imported oil for the generation of electricity, but new
hydroelectric capacity from the Mahaweli project in the 1980s
reduced the importance of oil. In 1986 total installed capacity
was 1,010 megawatts, of which 74 percent was from hydropower.
In early 1988, it appeared that the Mahaweli project would
solve Sri Lanka's electricity supply problem for the foreseeable
future. This integrated power generation and irrigation project
started contributing to power supplies in 1984 when the first two
phases of the Victoria Dam were completed, adding 140 megawatts
to installed power capacity. In April 1985, the final stage of
the Victoria Dam increased capacity by 70 megawatts. A slightly
greater capacity was expected to result in the late 1980s.
United States and British-owned oil companies in Sri Lanka
were nationalized in 1963, and since then the importing,
refining, and distributing of all oil products has been the
responsibility of the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation, the state oil
company. Its oil refinery started production in 1969. The main
products in 1986 were fuel oil (559,497 tons), heavy diesel
(60,995 tons), auto diesel (406,569 tons), kerosene (153,692
tons), and gasoline (123,089 tons).
Data as of October 1988
|
