ADB President officially opened the LECO Microgrid Pilot Project and the LECO-UOM Smart Grid Research Lab at the University of Moratuwa on 11th March 2022.
The University of Moratuwa (UOM) together with Lanka Electricity Company (Pvt) Ltd (LECO) has recently launched an important Pilot Project on Microgrid with generous financial assistance from the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The strong technical partnership came from LECO. The ADB assistance amounted to $ 1.8 million grant (approximately Rs. 325 million) from Clean Energy Financing Partnership Facility, the largest ever of such assistance to the university. The project commenced with the MOU signed by UOM and LECO in 2018 for the purpose of Research and Development in the field of Smart Grids. The facilities established under this project are expected to benefit the engineering faculties and students in all the universities across the country as well as LECO which is looking to replicate this microgrid model in other parts of its distribution network.
The LECO Microgrid Pilot Project is the first of its kind in Sri Lanka. It consists of a solar photovoltaic system, a lithium-ion battery energy storage system, and a diesel generator as the energy resources. The capacity of the solar photovoltaic system is 350 kW, and the battery energy storage system is 400 kWh. The backup diesel generator capacity is 630 kVA. In addition, the microgrid powers three buildings on the campus that have remote load control capability integrated into them. With these distributed energy resources, the system can operate independently during power outages with the help of an automated control system.
Apart from the microgrid pilot, this project established the LECO – UOM Smart Grid Research Lab, a research and development facility with state-of-the-art equipment from reputed manufacturers. The lab houses solar PV systems, battery energy storage systems, controllable loads, and measurement devices that can be used in cutting-edge research and development.
