Leading a five-member-team, the additional secretary in Sri Lanka's irrigation & power ministry, Anand S Gunasekar, visited Orissa last week to gather first-hand information about the process. Gunasekar met the principal secretary, energy, TK Mishra, Gridco CMD BC Jena and Orissa Hydro Power Corporation (OHPC) managing director HS Sahu. He discussed with them the pros and cons of the Orissa model.

The Sri Lankan team, comprising Ceylon Electricity Board general manager (transmission) DG Wijeratna, Lankan Electricity Company general manager, W Perera and JF Bauer of Asian Development Bank, is apparently impressed with the Orissa model. Orissa, which has pioneered power sector reforms in the country, has disbundled the Orissa Electricity Board into three different entities such as Gridco (transmission &distribution), Orissa Hydro Power Corporation and Orissa Power Generation Corporation (OPGC) in order to encourage private sector investments in power generation as also in transmission and distribution.

The state constituted a quasi-judiciary body, Orissa Electricity Regulatory Commission, to regulate the activities of the players in the sector. The Orissa model has already been adopted by Andhra Pradesh and Haryana.

Sri Lanka generates about 1600mw mostly from hydro-power stations. Nearly 40 per cent of the power is consumed by the eight crore population of the country.

According to Gunasekar, the demand for power from the industrial sector is not much in Sri Lanka because the island country does not have power-intensive units like steel, cement and refractories. Gunasekar pointed out that transmission and distribution loss in Sri Lanka is about 20 per cent as against 46 per cent in Orissa.