Island-Wide Power Cuts Announced by CEB for Two Days

The scheduled power outages will last for one and a half hours each day, taking place between 3:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. The outages will affect the entire island, with regions divided into zones to ensure the efficient management of the power supply system.

This announcement comes in the wake of a widespread power outage that affected the country on February 9, which began at approximately 11:15 a.m.

 The outage was triggered by an incident at the Panadura grid substation, where a monkey reportedly caused an imbalance in the power system. Although power was fully restored by 6:00 p.m., a subsequent issue at the Norochcholai Coal Power Plant exacerbated the situation.

The Norochcholai plant faced a disconnection of all three of its generators due to an automatic protocol system failure, leading to a loss of 900 megawatts from the national grid. This disruption worsened the power shortage, prompting further outages across the country as demand for electricity increased in the evening.

To address the shortfall, the CEB tapped into additional power from thermal power plants. However, despite these efforts, the full restoration of the grid was not achieved until 9:45 p.m.

The CEB has stated that the restart of the three generators at the Norochcholai plant will take approximately four days, and the ongoing power cuts will continue until the plant is fully back online and contributing to the national grid.

The CEB urges the public to remain patient and follow the scheduled power cuts during this period to ensure the smooth operation of the electricity supply system across Sri Lanka.