Sri Lanka asks electric vehicle owners to stop charging at night to prevent overloading the power grid, which forces increased use of coal and diesel
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka has urged electric vehicle owners to stop charging their cars at night, saying the surge in demand is forcing the country to burn more coal and diesel.
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said electric cars were adding an extra 300 megawatts of demand at night, straining the national grid.
“Electric car owners charge their vehicles when they return from work,” he said in a national address.
“This is placing an additional burden on the grid, and we are compelled to operate all our generators to meet this surge.”
Much of the night-time electricity is generated by a 900-megawatt coal power station and another 1,000 megawatts from diesel.
This contrasts sharply with the clean energy image of electric vehicles.
The country currently has no large-scale battery storage to utilise its abundant daytime solar power.
“Charge your car during the day when we have excess electricity from solar,” Dissanayake advised.
He added that authorities plan to introduce new tariffs shortly to curb night-time charging.
The South Asian nation has seen a surge in electric car imports since a five-year ban was lifted last February.
More than 10% of all vehicles imported since then have been fully electric.
Faced with an energy crisis exacerbated by the Middle East war, Sri Lanka has begun rationing fuel.
It has also imposed a four-day working week to conserve energy.
Dissanayake said the country was unable to secure two shipments of 90,000 tonnes of crude oil due to the conflict.
However, he said Colombo was in talks with “friendly states” including India and Russia to purchase refined products.
Streets were relatively free of traffic on Wednesday, with train and bus stations empty.
Schools, government offices and banks closed in response to the government’s energy-saving drive.
