The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) has announced that island-wide power cuts will be implemented on Monday (10) and Tuesday (11).

Accordingly, the one-and-a-half-hour power outage will occur between 3.30 p.m. and 9.30 p.m., affecting the entire island, the CEB said.

The power supply disruptions will take place for one-and-a-half-hour each today and tomorrow during the said time period with areas divided into zones, to manage the power supply system.

On February 09, Sri Lanka faced a widespread power outage that affected the entire island at around 11.15 a.m. The cause of the outage was linked to an incident at the Panadura grid substation, where a monkey reportedly entered the substation, triggering an imbalance in the power system. As a result, the island’s electricity supply 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 has stated that it will take about four days to restart the three generators at the Norochcholai plant and that the power cuts are required until the Norochcholai plant is added to the national grid.

The schedule with the time periods and zones for the power cuts will is as follows;