SIS to probe countrywide power outage 

State Minister of Power and Energy Indika Anuruddha Herath has revealed that the State Intelligence Service (SIS) has been tasked with conducting an investigation into the countrywide power outage which occurred on 9 December which plunged the entire country into darkness for nearly five hours. 

Speaking in Parliament yesterday the State Minister said an external committee has also been appointed to look into the incident. The committee will submit a report to the Minister of Power and Energy following inquiries. 

On Sunday, the State Minister announced that two separate probes into the incident by the Ministry of Power and Energy, as well as the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), will be launched to ascertain the cause of the power outage. 

The CEB has maintained that the power outage was a consequence of a lightning strike on the Kothmale – Biyagama transmission line, leading to a system outage. 

The spokesperson of the CEB Engineer Noel Priyantha told the media this was confirmed during the inspection of the data system. 

Around 5.10 p.m. on 9 December, the entire island experienced a complete power outage, which was only resolved after approximately five hours. The investigations into the incident after concerns were raised questioning if the outage was an act of sabotage as a protest against the issuance of a gazette outlining the restructuring of the CEB.