Lanka imposes daily electricity cuts after nation-wide power outage

A massive power outage hit Sri Lanka on Monday, plunging the entire country into darkness for around seven hours and disrupting essential services and businesses following a technical failure at Chinese built Norochcholai coal power plant in the north western region. The state power entity Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) said power cuts have been introduced with effect from Tuesday as a measure to meet the shortfall caused by the breakdown of the coal power station.

Sri Lanka's electricity board on Tuesday decided to impose one-hour power cut daily for a period of four days to meet the shortfall caused by the breakdown of a major power plant that led to a nation-wide power outage. A massive power outage hit Sri Lanka on Monday, plunging the entire country into darkness for around seven hours and disrupting essential services and businesses following a technical failure at Chinese built Norochcholai coal power plant in the north western region.

The state power entity Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) said power cuts have been introduced with effect from Tuesday as a measure to meet the shortfall caused by the breakdown of the coal power station. "We are short of about 300 megawatts and to meet this shortage there will be power cuts lasting for an hour from 6 pm till 10 pm based on 4 zones", Vijitha Herath the chief of the CEB told reporters.

The Norochcholai coal power plant is currently off-grid due to a rise in the temperature and requires to be reset after the temperature drops to the assigned level, he said. The Norochcholai coal power station has suffered frequent breakdowns in the recent past.

The government has appointed a committee to probe the islandwide power failure. However, the power sector trade unions have ruled out any sabotage as the reason for the sudden power outage.

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