The consultants carried out a socio-economic analysis to determine the most viable projects with the largest poverty reduction impact. The studies include detailed socio-economic analysis including the ability of customers to pay and an environmental assessment. Further, they:
- Reviewed the status of on-going and prior rural electrification projects undertaken by the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) and the rural electrification programme prepared by the CEB for the next five years;
- Reviewed the results of CEB’s pre-feasibility studies in which villages in all the provinces have been identified for electrification;
- Carried out engineering line surveys, checked line lengths, confirmed existing loads, and checked estimates of future line loadings prepared by CEB. They estimated the overall cost of connecting consumers and further prepared estimates for the cost of each district, using international unit prices;
- Determined the least-cost power system expansion needed to electrify the villages and households under consideration, giving careful attention to the location and size of transformers and associated facilities. Reviewed the system optimization recommendations made under other assistance projects and, to the extent practicable, incorporated them into optimizing the design of the extensions to the national power system so that a true least-cost solution is achieved. This was supported by calculations.
Phase 1 of the TA was completed in December 2004 and Phase 11 in November 2005.
