Update: Norochcholai out of action; power cuts to continue

The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) has warned the public to expect intermitent power outages for the next several days as the island-wide power outage that occurred yesterday has put the Lakvijaya Coal Power Plant in Norochcholai out of action.

The Norochcholai coal power plant supplies 900 Mega Watts to the National Grid. The process of getting the plant operational again will take several days. As such, the CEB noted several parts of the island may experience power cuts from time to time.

Meanwhile, several parts of the island, including certain parts of Colombo,  experienced power outages this morning as well.

A meeting between high-ranking officials of the CEB and the Ministry of Power and Renewable Energy over yesterday's power outage was due to be held this morning. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has also called a meeting to discuss the topic. That meeting is scheduled for this afternoon.

The Ministry of Power and Renewable Energy says it suspects that the country-wide power cut was caused by a fault at a sub-station in the Biyagama area.

Secretary to the Ministry Dr. Suren Batagoda said that the supply of electricity has been restored to the cities of Colombo and Kandy.

Meanwhile, Chairman of the Ceylon Electricity Board Anura Wijeyapala said that the Norochcholai Power Plant has also malfunctioned.

Sri Lanka suffered its worst nationwide power cut in 20 years Sunday, March 13, causing water shortages and transport and trade disruptions across the country, officials said.

The national grid switched off early afternoon and attempts to reconnect failed as the system was unable to cope with night-time demand, a spokesman for the state-run Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) told local media

However, after about 7 hours several areas of the capital received electricity while the authorities announced a step-by-step restoration of power throughout the island.

It was the second major power failure in less than a month, following a 3-hour disruption late February.

The latest blackout was the longest since May 1996 when the entire country was without electricity for 4 days.

CEB chief Anura Wijepala accepted responsibility for the latest breakdown and offered to resign.Traffic signals failed and public transport was disrupted, while many shops were unable to process credit card payments and fuel pumps were out of action.