The whole of Sri Lanka was left without power on Monday, 17 August, after a failure at a key electricity facility, officials said, reported news agency PTI.
The country’s Minister of Power Dullas Alahapperuma attributed the blackout to an unspecified "technical issue" at the Kerawalapitiya power complex just outside the capital city of Colombo. Power returned to the country of 21 million people after about seven hours, with some parts of the island still being reconnected.
There was chaos on congested roads, with lights not working. Hospitals and other critical infrastructure were backed up by power generators. The main airport mainly remained shut due to COVID-19 and water supply was also disrupted, the report added.
The country’s public utility regulator has said a probe into the failure has been called and gave the state-run electricity monopoly, the Ceylon Electricity Board, three days to explain the massive disruption.
Kerawalapitiya is an oil-fired thermal power station with a 300-megawatt capacity, about 12 percent of the country's electricity demand.
(With inputs from PTI)
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