A power cut is scheduled across the island for one and a half hours today (11).

The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) stated that the outage will occur between 3:30 pm and 10:00 pm under four categories. This decision follows the inoperability of the Norochcholai Power Plant, which supplies 900 megawatts to the national grid.

A nationwide power outage occurred at 11:15 pm on the 9th due to a fault at the Panadura Electricity Substation. Energy Minister Kumara Jayakody attributed the disruption to a monkey hitting a transformer, a claim widely reported by international media.

Following the blackout, all three generators at the Lakvijaya Coal Power Plant in Norochcholai shut down due to protective system activation. As their reactivation requires approximately four days, the CEB decided to implement scheduled power cuts.

The Public Utilities Commission has approved the proposal, with power cuts scheduled as follows:

3:30 pm – 5:30 pm: Zones A, B, C, D
5:00 pm – 7:00 pm: Zones E, F, G, H, U, V
6:30 pm – 8:30 pm: Zones I, J, K, L, P, Q
8:00 pm – 10:00 pm: Zones R, S, T, W

The CEB stated that power cut durations may vary by up to 30 minutes.