{"id":127861,"date":"2014-07-16T00:56:30","date_gmt":"2014-07-15T19:26:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=127861"},"modified":"2014-07-23T11:11:14","modified_gmt":"2014-07-23T05:41:14","slug":"a-simple-solution-to-ease-the-power-crisis-in-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/a-simple-solution-to-ease-the-power-crisis-in-sri-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"A Simple Solution To Ease The Power Crisis In Sri Lanka"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Muhammed Fazl<\/span><\/a> –<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Muhammed<\/a>

Muhammed Fazl<\/p><\/div>\n

With the much hyped Norochcholai<\/span><\/a> Coal Power Plant breaking down for the 26th time, the hapless public pray to rain gods on a regular basis yielding very little results. And with corruption being rife and mismanagement being the order of the day at the Ministry of Power and at CEB, it need not be rocket science to figure out the two options of overcoming the power crisis that threatens our lifestyle and the development of the country.<\/span><\/p>\n

Firstly, power generation has to be increased either with coal, thermal, nuclear, hydro, renewable, windmill or solar technology. But it needs to be sustainable and cost effective. Secondly, energy must be saved. It would be unfair if we lay 100% blame on the authorities when constantly changing market forces, nature and the war which just ended taking a huge toll on our country. I believe we as citizens need to contribute our share as well in developing this isle of ours.<\/p>\n

In the backdrop of high level discussions and short sighted projects, no practical or cost effective solution to meet the ever rising demand for power consumption seems to be in sight either. So I thought it is about time I share my two cents worth, hoping a concerned individual or a concerned authority would take serious notice and improvise on a simple idea. I am no economist or an electric engineer, but I believe this baby step of introducing this simple energy saving method would be the need of the hour.<\/p>\n

<\/b>Wrinkle-free clothing<\/b><\/p>\n

Sri Lanka with a student population of 4.2 million and an employed labor force of 8 million could play a vital role in reducing the cost of power generation. Please take note of the following as approx. figures.<\/p>\n

STATUS-QUO<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

School going students<\/b><\/p>\n

Total no. of school students\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0– 4,200,000
\nNo. of students who irons their uniform for school\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0– 3,500,000
\nMedian wattage of the electric iron (800w \u2013 1800w)\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0– 1300 watts
\nTime taken to complete the ironing task (if not distracted by TV)\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0– 10 minutes
\nNo. of school days per year\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0– 180 days<\/p>\n

Total power usage per year (3.5 mil * 1.3kw * 1\/6 hour * 180 days)\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0-136,000 MW<\/p>\n

<\/b>Employed Labor Force<\/b><\/p>\n

Total no. of employed workforce \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0– 8,000,000
\nNo. of workers who irons their clothes for work \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0– 1,500,000
\nMedian wattage of the electric iron (800w \u2013 1800w)\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0– 1300 watts
\nTime taken to complete the ironing task (if not distracted by TV)\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0– 10 minutes
\nNo. of working days per year \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0– 250 days<\/p>\n

Total power usage per year (1.5 mil * 1.3kw * 1\/6 hour * 250 days) \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0– 81,000 MW<\/p>\n

<\/b>SOLUTION<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Providing wrinkle-free clothes as uniforms for school students as against cotton or any other material that needs ironing and relaxation of the rule of formal attire (clothing that needs ironing) for office workers on Fridays (at least), would bring about,<\/p>\n

Savings of power per year,<\/p>\n

136,000 MW + 16,000 MW (1\/5th<\/sup> of 81,000 – taking in account Fridays only)\u00a0–\u00a0 152,000 MW
\nCost of power generation to the CEB
\n(152,000,000 KW * Rs. 23\/-) \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0– Rs. 3,500,000,000\/-<\/p>\n

Savings by CEB when NOT giving it to consumers at subsidized Rate \u2013<\/p>\n

{Rs. 3,500,000,000 – (152,000,000 KW * Rs, 15.45\/-)} \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0– Rs. 1,150,000,000\/-<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

CENTS AND SENSIBILITY<\/b><\/p>\n

Having lived in the US and being exposed to fewer bureaucratic ways of governance, it is about time the authorities in SL starts having an out-of-the-box approach in crisis management. By introducing wrinkle-free clothes as an energy saving option, it is important to select the best suitable material that would suit our climate, be durable, cost effective and practical. A number of fabrics don\u2019t need ironing, like Nylon, Polyester (especially the moisture management technology fabriques), Lycra, Rayon, Acrylic, Aramid fibre, Spandex, Goretex, Tyvek, Milk fibre cloth, Ingeo, and Lurex etc. Some cotton blends are also wrinkle free, but only because another synthetic fiber has been added to the natural cotton fiber to make them wrinkle free. My choice would be 100% Polyester with a mixture of Spandex (like the ones found in NIKE stores). It is very comforting to the skin as well and it can double as sports attire during and after school hours. But I leave it to the experts and textile technologists.<\/p>\n

As for the casual clothing for office workers on Fridays, I would suggest jeans and T shirts where no ironing is needed. I am also yet to understand the wisdom behind the age-old practice of forcing students in some schools to wear neck-ties and women wearing suits as uniforms in companies in this warm climatic country of ours. Let us break free from inept traditions and instead give importance to contents that which is being taught in schools and productivity at work places. Addressing the power crisis that we are faced with today should be far more serious than sticking to \u2018traditions\u2019 of students and employees being forced to wear uncomfortable, time consuming and high maintenance attire!<\/p>\n

In a world where time is money, let us also not forget the valuable time saved especially during the busy mornings when no time is wasted standing behind tables worrying about plaits (pleats) and creases!<\/p>\n

*The writer is an independent political\/social activist and can be contacted at muhammedfazl@msn.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":124016,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-127861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\nA Simple Solution To Ease The Power Crisis In Sri Lanka - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/a-simple-solution-to-ease-the-power-crisis-in-sri-lanka\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Simple Solution To Ease The Power Crisis In Sri Lanka - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[…]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/a-simple-solution-to-ease-the-power-crisis-in-sri-lanka\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-07-15T19:26:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-07-23T05:41:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Muhammed-Fazl-.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"166\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"209\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/a-simple-solution-to-ease-the-power-crisis-in-sri-lanka\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/a-simple-solution-to-ease-the-power-crisis-in-sri-lanka\/\",\"name\":\"A Simple Solution To Ease The Power Crisis In Sri Lanka - Colombo Telegraph\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/a-simple-solution-to-ease-the-power-crisis-in-sri-lanka\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/a-simple-solution-to-ease-the-power-crisis-in-sri-lanka\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Muhammed-Fazl-.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-07-15T19:26:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-07-23T05:41:14+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/a-simple-solution-to-ease-the-power-crisis-in-sri-lanka\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/a-simple-solution-to-ease-the-power-crisis-in-sri-lanka\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/a-simple-solution-to-ease-the-power-crisis-in-sri-lanka\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Muhammed-Fazl-.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Muhammed-Fazl-.jpg\",\"width\":166,\"height\":209,\"caption\":\"Muhammed Fazl\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/a-simple-solution-to-ease-the-power-crisis-in-sri-lanka\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"A Simple Solution To Ease The Power Crisis In Sri Lanka\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\",\"name\":\"Colombo Telegraph\",\"description\":\"In journalism truth is a process\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\",\"name\":\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/colombo_telegraph\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A Simple Solution To Ease The Power Crisis In Sri Lanka - Colombo Telegraph","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/a-simple-solution-to-ease-the-power-crisis-in-sri-lanka\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A Simple Solution To Ease The Power Crisis In Sri Lanka - Colombo Telegraph","og_description":"[…]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/a-simple-solution-to-ease-the-power-crisis-in-sri-lanka\/","og_site_name":"Colombo Telegraph","article_published_time":"2014-07-15T19:26:30+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-07-23T05:41:14+00:00","og_image":[{"width":166,"height":209,"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Muhammed-Fazl-.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/a-simple-solution-to-ease-the-power-crisis-in-sri-lanka\/","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/a-simple-solution-to-ease-the-power-crisis-in-sri-lanka\/","name":"A Simple Solution To Ease The Power Crisis In Sri Lanka - Colombo Telegraph","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/a-simple-solution-to-ease-the-power-crisis-in-sri-lanka\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/a-simple-solution-to-ease-the-power-crisis-in-sri-lanka\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Muhammed-Fazl-.jpg","datePublished":"2014-07-15T19:26:30+00:00","dateModified":"2014-07-23T05:41:14+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/a-simple-solution-to-ease-the-power-crisis-in-sri-lanka\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/a-simple-solution-to-ease-the-power-crisis-in-sri-lanka\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/a-simple-solution-to-ease-the-power-crisis-in-sri-lanka\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Muhammed-Fazl-.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Muhammed-Fazl-.jpg","width":166,"height":209,"caption":"Muhammed Fazl"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/a-simple-solution-to-ease-the-power-crisis-in-sri-lanka\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A Simple Solution To Ease The Power Crisis In Sri Lanka"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/","name":"Colombo Telegraph","description":"In journalism truth is a process","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3","name":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH"},"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/colombo_telegraph\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Muhammed-Fazl-.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127861"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127861\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":128159,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127861\/revisions\/128159"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}