‘Probe into Saturday’s power blackout already begun’

State Minister of Power and Energy Indika Anuruddha yesterday (10) said in Parliament that an impartial internal investigation will be conducted on Saturday’s islandwide electricity blackout.

The State Minister also said that the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) and the Power and Energy Ministry will jointly conduct this internal investigation.

He said this while replying to the question asked by the Opposition Leader regarding the power cut.

The State Minister of State also said that the CEB and the Ministry have started an internal investigation in this regard.

At the time of this incident, only 300 MW was produced by the Norochcholai coal plant. All the remaining electricity was obtained from hydroelectricity. The road that brings hydropower was cut off due to weather conditions. There was no possibility of automatic recovery. The Norochcholai power plant was also disabled as it could not hold that amount. All supply lines stopped at that time. It took four to five hours to restore it. It was possible to recover by restarting small power plants, the State Minister said.

The Opposition Leader said that Norochcholai has a capacity of 900 MW. “Only 300 MW was generated by the Norochcholai plant and the rest is generated from hydroelectricity because the unit cost is reduced. That is the formula. I suggest that a formal investigation be conducted by impartial experts on this matter. This is a national security issue,” he said.

State Minister Indika Anuruddha said, “We have started an impartial investigation before the Opposition Leader made his comments. This test is done by getting the data from the record generators.”

The Polpitiya Kotmale cable line has been delayed for many years. It was to be built in 2015. In that regard, the State Minister gave instructions to start an investigation yesterday.

The Opposition Leader said that on Saturday, 500,000 people lost electricity.

The State Minister replied, “We have provided electricity for 24 hours throughout this year. But yesterday’s incident happened due to an unexpected situation. We have also invited the Opposition to participate in the discussion on the power blackout on Tuesday.”

The post ‘Probe into Saturday’s power blackout already begun’ appeared first on DailyNews.