Performing the function of the national energy accountant for the last two decades, we are often consulted by other agencies for energy data. We conduct various surveys and investigations to provide a better understanding and deep insights to energy related issues covering many sectors. We often collaborate with Department of Census and Statistics in these efforts.
Job Survey and Skills Analysis for the Renewable Energy Sector
This survey was conducted by GIZ Sri Lanka and SLSEA with the involvement of various stakeholders, including the government institutions, energy sector institutions, TVET education and training providers, curriculum developers, the research community and academia, and civil society and practitioners. The survey provides insights into the current and future employment opportunities and skill requirements in Sri Lanka's renewable energy sector.
A survey for the food industry - Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Efficiency Potential in the Food Value Chain
The food value chain is comprised of different nodes, i.e. production, handling and storage, process and packaging, distribution and marketing, and consumption. Energy is accumulated in food items at all these nodes of the food value chain due to the usage of fossil fuel for different activities, which commences at the farm and ends at the plate. This energy is known as embedded energy. Food is wasted at each node of the value chain and results in energy wastage. The energy wastage through the food value chain should be reduced, to control the build-up of embedded energy in food items which survive up to the plate. SLSEA has designed a study in collaboration with the Faculty of Livestock, Fisheries and Nutrition – Wayamba University, to quantify embedded energy from farm to plate for selected food value chains. It is understood that the quality of food degenerates with time, distance, transport and frequency of handling.
The Dambulla Economic Centre (DEC)is the focal point in fruits and vegetable value chain and crucial location, which handles the inflow and outflow of large volumes of fruits and vegetables in Sri Lanka, thus the study was designed based on this important node. The embedded energy of the selected crops through the value chain was calculated. Further the quantities and root causes of post-harvest losses in selected market chains from farmer to consumer level were identified, to introduce measures to reduce the post-harvest losses. In addition, pectin was extracted from the fruits and vegetable waste at the DEC as a measure of utilisation of fruits and vegetable waste.
This study had many benefits to the SEA as well as the food industry. The main benefit to the SEA from this study was, quantifying the energy efficiency potential and renewable energy potential of the food value chain.
Many scientific articles were published, discussing the wide-ranging results of this study, and a few have been uploaded below.
Disaggregation of Energy Data related to Petroleum products by End Use Category
SLSEA conducted a study on Disaggregation of Energy Data related to Petroleum products by End Use Category which focused on transport energy use, and attempted to isolate non-transport energy use from the total volume of fuels dispensed from fuel stations in the country. It aimed at identifying the types of vehicles which access fuel stations in the country, frequency of refuelling, volumes involved per refuelling turn, frequency of delivery of bulk fuels to fuel stations and many more aspects of transport energy use in Sri Lanka. The survey was carried out by enumerators positioned at each pumping station for a given period; to collect two primary data i.e. amount of fuel dispensed and vehicle type. Apart from collecting the two primary data, the following information was also collected using a brief questionnaire targeting the vehicle user.
