News

Island-wide power cuts for today and tomorrow

Published

1 month ago

February 10, 2025

editor

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;

CEB Press Release-2025-02-10 Download

News

Misuse of plantation funds and lands exposed in parliament

Published

43 minutes ago

March 15, 2025

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Minister of Plantations and Community Infrastructure, Samantha Vidyarathna, addressed Parliament, alleging that numerous associates and officials, including former ministers, have recently received substantial sums of money and government lands under the pretext of various cultivation projects, which were subsequently not implemented. He announced that investigations will be initiated into these matters.

Minister Vidyarathna accused former Minister Salinda Dissanayake of acquiring 76 acres of fertile land from the Kurunegala Plantation Company through a company he personally established.

Additionally, he claimed that a friend of former Minister Arundika Fernando was allocated 21 acres of fertile land belonging to the same company, misrepresented as barren land, with the transaction allegedly authorized by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

The Minister further alleged that Anoma Gamage, wife of former Primary Industries Minister Daya Gamage, received 140 million rupees purportedly for an agricultural project, which was never executed.

These allegations were presented during the debate on the expenditure head of the Ministry of Plantations and Community Infrastructure.

He also stated that former Navy Commander Wasantha Karannagoda was granted 180 million rupees for a cultivation project, and that 82 million rupees were given to the son of former Ministry Secretary Bandula Wickramarachchi for a similar initiative.