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Agence France-Presse

Sri Lanka has said electricity would be rationed across the island, after a Chinese-built coal power generator shut down in an hours-long nationwide blackout.
Power will be cut for nearly three hours every day across the country of 21 million people to conserve electricity, the state-run Ceylon Electricity Board said.
A “technical fault” at a 300-megawatt thermal power plant near the capital Colombo on Monday left the nation without power for up to 10 hours.

The unspecified failure also caused the Chinese-built Lakvijaya Power Station – a 900-megawatt coal plant which generates almost one-third of Sri Lanka’s electricity – to trip.
“A coal-powered plant takes a few days to restart after a shutdown,” a spokesman for the board said. “We will have the power cuts to conserve electricity until we are able to reconnect the coal plant.”
The spokesman did not say when the plant is expected to be operational.
Sri Lanka seeks to undo Hambantota port lease to Chinese venture
The disruption is the worst since March 2016, when the whole country was without electricity for more than eight hours following a massive system breakdown.
The public utilities regulator said the electricity board had been given three days to probe the failure and explain the massive disruption.
The power cut caused chaos on already congested roads in Colombo, with traffic lights not operating and police struggling to man key intersections.
Water supply was also affected as there was no electricity to operate the pumps.
Sri Lanka generates just under half of its electricity through thermal power, with just over 32 per cent from coal. Hydro makes up almost 50 per cent and wind about two per cent.


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Sri Lanka cuts power for 21 million people after Chinese-built coal generator trips

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Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brother, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, wave to supporters. Their party secured a landslide victory in the parliamentary elections, giving them the two-thirds majority required to make constitutional changes. Photo: AP

Supporters of Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa celebrate near his home in the southern town of Tangalle on August 7, 2020, after the Sri Lanka's parliamentary election results. - Sri Lanka's ruling Rajapaksa brothers have secured a two-thirds majority in parliamentary elections, giving them powers to change the constitution and unravel democratic safeguards, final results showed on August 7. (Photo by LAKRUWAN WANNIARACHCHI / AFP)

epa08589043 Sri Lankan Prime Minister elect Mahinda Rajapaksa greets people at his home in Beliatta, Hambantota, Sri Lanka, 07 August 2020. Mahinda Rajapaksa's Sri Lanka Podujana Party (SLPP) won 145 seats during the election. EPA-EFE/CHAMILA KARUNARATHNE

Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Präsident von Sri Lanka, winkt als er nach seiner Stimmabgabe für die Parlamentswahlen ein Wahllokal verlässt.

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News

Asia

South Asia


A ‘technical fault’ caused the Lakvijaya Power Station, which generates almost one-third of Sri Lanka’s electricity, to crash
The country will turn off power for a few hours a day until the power plant is reconnected, a process which will take days



The country will turn off power for a few hours a day until the Chinese-built Norochcholai coal generator is reconnected.


China-Sri Lanka relations

Energy