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Subregional Conference Going Beyond The Meter: Inclusive Energy Solutions in South Asia Session 3 Harsha Wickramasinghe-DSM Sri Lanka

Presentation of Mr. Harsha Wickramasinghe on Demand Side Management in Low Income Households in Sri Lanka for Session 3: Entry Points for GESI Mainstreaming sub-topic on End-User Demand-Side Management- Sri Lanka, Uzbekistan, and India

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96 views11 pages

Subregional Conference Going Beyond The Meter: Inclusive Energy Solutions in South Asia Session 3 Harsha Wickramasinghe-DSM Sri Lanka

Presentation of Mr. Harsha Wickramasinghe on Demand Side Management in Low Income Households in Sri Lanka for Session 3: Entry Points for GESI Mainstreaming sub-topic on End-User Demand-Side Management- Sri Lanka, Uzbekistan, and India

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Asian Development Bank Conferences
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Demand Side Management in

Low Income Households


Lessons from Sri Lanka
Harsha Wickramasinghe
Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority

Why DSM matters in low income


households?
Can make or break family budgets
Disconnections can be costly show stoppers
Tariff concessions decouple reality from
decision making
Exert great pressure on generation systems

Why DSM often fail?


Purchase decisions made, based on short term
perspectives
No excess cash in hand
Better technologies never reach the outskirts
of society
Well insulated from tariffs

Intriguing cash flows of a low


income family
Single bread winner
Often the finance manager is the bread winner, but
Thrift is a feminine concept
Most families are run by mothers
Many other financial instruments
Utility bill payments (complex) male
Other expenses (essentials) - female

Why low interest shown by women


in energy saving ?
Electricity is a techy thing
Interfere with their only means of
entertainment
End of month phenomenon, no immediate
pain/joy (if any)

A campaign to reduce demand


not energy

Focussed on lighting and other contributors to


peak demand
Main strategies- switch-off, improve efficiency,
differ from peak

Campaign theme absurdism


For obvious reasons

Touching the gender divide


Subtle use of age old rivalry between sexes
Men as worthless loafers / sinners
Women as thoughtless wasters
Creative use of cultural negativism
Portray energy waste in a bad light
Rode available cultural / media waves
Reality shows etc.
Touched on unfamiliar terrain, to stand out in the clutter

Results
Contributed to decouple GDP growth from
electricity demand growth
Lowered demand growth trajectory
Drove CFL sales up, by 30%
Made CFL the main source of lighting

312MW demand and 350GWh energy saved


35

70%

30

60%
50%

25

40%

20

30%
15

20%

10

10%

5
0
2001

0%
2002

2003
CFL

2004

2005

2006

Normal

2007

2008

2009

Penetration %

-10%
2010

CFL Penetration %

Light Sources Imported (millions/year)

Lighting Efficiency Gains

Challenges
Maintaining a media campaign
Exorbitant cost of media space-time
Fatigue prone

Consolidation of change
Need many other actions, outside
communications sphere

THANK YOU..!

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