Kanchana outlines immediate steps taken to investigate recent blackout countrywide

Power and Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekera yesterday provided further details on the steps being taken to address the recent countrywide blackout and prevent future disruptions in the power supply.

Minister Wijesekera stated that instructions have been issued to the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) management to promptly implement the recommendations proposed by the System Control and Investigations team. 

“On Monday, I visited the System Control Room of CEB to discuss the cause and reasons for the islandwide blackout that took place on Saturday. System Control Engineers and officials presented the events that took place leading to the blackout and steps that were taken to restore power,” he said via ‘X’ yesterday.

The country suffered a blackout on Saturday evening (9) as the CEB grid was hit by a cascading power failure which lasted over five hours.

“The Ceylon Electricity Board wishes to inform our customers that due to the failure of the Kotmale-Biyagama main transmission line, an islandwide power failure has occurred. Step-by-step restorations are underway and it may take a few hours to completely restore the power supply. The CEB regrets the inconvenience caused to the customers and kindly requests to bear with us until the full restoration of the power supply,” CEB noted in a statement on Saturday.

The Minister implied that these recommendations expect to include both short-term corrective actions and long-term strategies to ensure the resilience of the power grid.

“Investigations are ongoing to determine and verify the exact reasons for the blackout,” Wijesekera added.

Separately, the former Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) Chairman Janaka Ratnayake claimed that Saturday’s blackout resulted in a direct loss of Rs. 6 billion to the CEB, adding that the current Power Energy Minister should be held accountable for this.

He also criticised the top management of the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), stating that they were responsible for the ‘unsafe situation’. 

Ratnayake highlighted that during his tenure, an order was issued through the special gazette notification No. 2296/38 dated 9 September 2022, directing the Ministry of Power and Energy and the Ceylon Electricity Board to take measures to prevent power outages due to the outage on 3 December 2021.