Utilities Commission probing reason for countrywide blackout on August 16

by Chanka Jayasinghe

Economynext – The Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka is conducting investigations at the Kerawalapitiya and Norochcholai power plants to find out what made the national grid to fail on August 16, PUCSL officials said.

Sri Lanka was hit by a major power failure on August 16 around 1235 hours, triggered by a transmission failure, resulting in emergency shutdowns of all generators connected to the Ceylon Electricity Board grid including coal plants.

The power was not restored until evening as the grid went down repeatedly.

“We have sent two teams today to the Kerawalapitiya main power plant, Kerawalapitiya substation and the Norochcholai power plants” PUCSL, Media Spokesman Jayanath Herath told Economy Next.

“We are investigating what happened on August 16 and the reasons for the power failure.”

Sri Lanka’s Independent Power Producers are generating 35 per cent of daily energy, with the Mahaweli River plants adding another 24 per cent of the daily energy data showed as the state-run power utility was working to re-connect three coal plants to the grid.

(ECONOMYNEXT)