No daily power cuts from today

The Minister of Power announced that there will be no daily power cuts from today (14 February) as power generated by one unit of the Norochcholai power plant has been added to the national grid.

This comes as the previously inactive Norochcholai Power Plant has reached operational status. One of the three generators of the coal power plant has now been successfully reconnected to the national grid, supplying 300 megawatts of electricity.

On Sunday (Feb 09), Sri Lanka faced a widespread power outage that affected the entire island from around 11.15 a.m. The cause of the outage was linked to an incident at the Panadura grid substation, where a monkey had reportedly entered the substation, triggering an imbalance in the power system. As a result, the electricity supply to the entire country was disrupted.

The power restoration process faced difficulties due to low electricity demand, which was typical on a Sunday. However, while power was fully restored by 6.00 p.m., a subsequent issue arose at the Norochcholai Coal Power Plant, where the automatic protocol system disconnected all three generators. This disconnection caused a loss of 900 megawatts to the national grid, exacerbating the power shortage.

By 6.00 p.m., the demand for electricity began to rise, which led to further power outages in various regions. To mitigate the shortfall, the CEB sourced additional electricity from thermal power plants. After a sustained effort, the power was fully restored to the island by 9.45 p.m.

Despite these efforts, the CEB had stated that it would take about four days to restart the three generators at the Norochcholai plant and that the power cuts will be required until the Norochcholai plant is added to the national grid.

The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) announced island-wide power cuts on Monday (10) and Tuesday (11) that lasted one-and-half hours.

No power disruption took place on Poya Day (12) due to low demand, however, a one-hour power cut was also imposed in different zones under 04 categories between 5.00 p.m. and 9.30 p.m. yesterday (13).

The CEB had stated that the decision on future power cuts would be announced this morning (14).