Wednesday Oct 21, 2026
Wednesday Oct 21, 2026
Wednesday, 21 October 2026 00:30 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Cabinet Spokesperson and Minister Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa yesterday rejected Opposition allegations that substandard coal contributed to the failure of Generator Unit 1 at the Lakvijaya Power Plant in Norochcholai during the nationwide blackout on Saturday.
Coal from a new shipment had been used for power generation since 4 September, he told journalists.
“There is no link between the coal quality and this incident, as the coal used since 4 September is from new shipments,” Dr. Jayatissa said.
The generator had been shut down for maintenance for 62 days from 30 July to 30 September, he said. Unit 1 remains offline following the technical failure, and Dr. Jayatissa expressed hope that the plant would return to normal operations from tomorrow, in line with assurances given by the authorities.
Asked about the financial losses caused by the outage, which journalists said the opposition was calculating, Dr. Jayatissa said the opposition would announce those figures next week. “Our job is to restore the system,” he said.
