An empirical analysis of households electricity demand in Ampara district in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Introduction Electricity plays a crucial role in the socio economic development of a country (Beenstock et. al., 1999). Sri Lanka is one of the nations which produces electricity from a mixture of sources such as hydro power, thermal power, wind power and bio energy (Public Utility Commission for Sri Lanka, 2012). Hydro power is the primary source of electricity in Sri Lanka and generates electricity in ten large and one small power station in the Laxapana, the Mahaweli, and the Samanala complexes. In 2013, the electricity generated by hydro power was 6,918 GWh. The thermal power is the second source of electricity in Sri Lanka which produces 4,772 GWh and the generation of power through Non- Conventional Renewable Energy (NCRE) sources, including mini-hydro generation was 1,171 GWh in 2013. Bio energy is another source of power in Sri Lanka to supplement the electricity to Ampara and Monaragala districts which is made by using paddy husk. The electricity generated by bio energy was 260 GWh in 2013 (Central Bank report, 2013).

In Sri Lanka, electricity is mainly used for residential, religious, general, industrial, and hotel purposes. Numbers of consumers of the above categories have continuously increased in the past. The number of domestic consumers are 88% of the total number of electricity consumers in 2011.The largest share of 40% of the total electricity units has been sold to domestic users in 2011 (Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka, 2013).

Electricity demand has been analyzed theoretically and empirically using different approaches (Beenstock et. al., 1999; Athukorala et al., 2007; Abosedra et al., 2009). These studies have considered different factors that influence the household electricity demand patterns according to the context and have analyzed the household electricity demand both at micro and macro levels. Complementing the existing studies, the present study will investigate the empirical realities of the households electricity demand in Ampara District in Sri Lanka. Hence, this study attempts to fill the research gap on household electricity demand through empirical test in the selected District. As there is a lack of research on this important issue, this empirical study is aimed to address this gap and this study was conducted in Ampara District of the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka.