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Unit cost of energy from Lakvijaya: The Sunday Times stands by article
The Sri Lanka Energy Managers Association (SLEMA) has said global costs of greenhouse gas emissions in one of its studies had been wrongly presented with damages at national level to mislead readers to believe that the certain power plants are causing large scale damages to the country.
Referring to the article headlined ‘Rs 10 added to every unit of electricity generated by Lakvijaya due to environment, health costs’ which appeared in the June 14, 2020, issue of the Sunday Times, SLEMA said the article made some misrepresentation from the draft report compiled by it, thus portraying “a distorted picture” of the study.
SLEMA said the article refers to a study titled ‘Estimation of External Cost of Thermal Power Generation in Sri Lanka’.
“Whilst acknowledging that SLEMA was retained by the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) as the consultant to the above study, we regret that your article made some representation from the draft report, portraying a distorted picture of the findings of the study,” a statement said.
“Our intention of submitting the draft report to PUCSL was to present it for public comments to incorporate all valid submissions by the public in the final report,” it said. “SLEMA holds no responsibility on any distorted claims made by various elements and SLEMA has no affiliation to those elements.”
Reporter’s note: The report has no reference whatsoever to “global costs of greenhouse gas emissions”.
It holds that, “In conclusion, when the cost per kWh is compared it is evident that the highest externality cost is resulted from the LVPP which is Rs 10.23 (when the lower bound value is considered).”
The article, while focusing on health and the environment as a reporter’s prerogative, clearly states that the impacts considered by the report were “greenhouse and other gaseous emissions, resource depletion, thermal, particulate and fugitive — from coal transport, storage and handling — emissions, heavy metal and water pollution and noise and vibration”.
All facts used in the article were drawn from the relevant publication. If SLEMA has any issue with the details, it must take it up with the authors of the report.