Water Board urges public to conserve water amid islandwide power outage

A nationwide electricity failure occurred in Sri Lanka on the 17th. Lankadeepa reported outages in several parts of the country from about 11:45 a.m.; the National System Operator (NSO) later confirmed a total interruption across the grid. Reports said restoration was under way in stages, with electricity returning area by area from around noon.

The NSO described the event as a system failure associated with instability. It rejected reports that several generating stations had broken down, saying that no plant failures had been reported. According to Newswire and Newsfirst, the operator said hydropower plants that had been running before the event remained operational and were being used in restoration. Norochcholai coal plant had been shut down under standard procedures after the grid failure, the NSO said, rather than because of a mechanical fault.

Energy Minister Anura Karunathilaka said the precise cause was still being investigated. He identified a technical failure at a power plant in Kotmale on October 16 as one possible contributing factor; another Newswire report described a breakdown at Upper Kotmale as suspected. The minister said power had already returned to one area and was being restored in stages. Authorities also asked rooftop solar system owners to switch off their panels until further notice to assist grid recovery.

The NSO expected the national grid to be restored at about 6:30 p.m. on the 17th. The minister said the immediate focus was restoring electricity nationwide while the cause investigation continued.

Written automatically by AI from the outlets’ own reports, and not reviewed by an editor. It can be wrong — the original report is the authority.