Generator failure triggers islandwide blackout; probe launched into grid collapse: NSO

Daily FT reports that the National System Operator (NSO) attributed the islandwide blackout on October 17 to a generator failure at the Norochcholai coal power plant, which caused the national grid to collapse within 30 seconds. Lankadeepa reports that NSO chief executive Buddika Samarasekara said the output of the plant’s first generator dropped from 187 megawatts to below five megawatts in a short time.

Daily Mirror and Ada Derana report that the NSO expected the Norochcholai plant to resume generation the next day, while Hiru News (සිංහල) and Ada Derana (සිංහල) also report that a generator was expected to rejoin the national grid. Newswire reports that Unit 1 at the Lakvijaya Power Plant remained offline after a technical failure linked to the nationwide outage.

Daily Mirror reports that an energy expert warned that restoration of the first unit could take four to five days and that limited power cuts might be needed after all three units broke down. In a separate report, Daily Mirror says the NSO announced that the plant would remain disconnected from the grid for several days. Those timelines differ from the next-day return expectation reported by Daily Mirror and Ada Derana.

Daily Mirror reports that Cabinet spokesperson Nalinda Jayatissa said the Government rejected opposition allegations that substandard coal caused the technical failure. Newswire also reports that the Government rejected claims linking the blackout to substandard coal. Daily FT reports that the NSO had launched an investigation into the events leading to the grid collapse.

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.