E’pitiya Power Plant failure triggers islandwide power outage

Several parts of the country experienced a power outage yesterday due to the failure of the Embilipitiya Thermal Power Plant, Power and Renewable Energy Ministry Development Director Sulakshana Jayawardena said.

He said the 100MW power plant was disrupted yesterday evening due to a fuel shortage.

Power was disrupted in several areas including Colombo and its suburbs and in Matara Ampara, Kandy and Gampaha Districts.

Mr. Jayawardena said load balancing (storing excess power during low demand periods for release as demand rises) was done to the grid automatically as the plant failed.

“Due to the high demand, more electricity needed to be provided to the system. Therefore, several areas experienced a power outage for a few hours,” Mr. Jayawardena said. (Chaturanga Pradeep)