It also involves start up costs for generators.
Sri Lanka also charges penal rates from larger household customers, about 300 percent or more of generation costs, which can also promote efficient use of appliances.
Harsha Wickramasinghe, deputy director general of Sri Lanka's Sustainable Energy Authority (SEA), which promotes renewable energy and conservation said penetration of compact fluorescent lights (CFL) had exceeded 50 percent of lighting in the country.
Wickramasinghe said state-run Ceylon Electricity Board had a loan scheme for CFL bulbs, which has been since discontinued but consumers had continued to purchase the bulbs on their own.
In some other countries there had been free bulb distribution schemes but consumers had abandoned their use after the program was discontinued, he said.
Sri Lanka now had a penetration of more than 50 percent for energy saving lighting, which was among the highest in the world, with even advanced nations havinSri Lanka now had a penetration