Nationwide Power Outage Plunges Sri Lanka into Darkness, Causing Economic Losses and Disruptions

a monkey.

The power cut began around 10:45 am local time and lasted for several hours before being restored by the national electricity board. Medical facilities and water purification plants were prioritized during the restoration process. The Ceylon Electricity Board initially cited an emergency at a substation south of Colombo as the cause of the outage, without elaborating further.

Energy Minister Kumara Jayakody later revealed that a group of monkeys had entered the Panadura Power Station during a scuffle, with one of them landing on a transmission line. "A monkey has come in contact with our grid transformer causing an imbalance in the system," the minister explained.

A security guard at the power station claimed to have heard a loud explosion and witnessed a ball of fire, expressing skepticism that a monkey could have caused such a significant disruption. "Monkeys jump into the power station very often. This does not seem to have been caused by a monkey," the guard stated to the Daily Mirror newspaper.

The energy ministry apologized for the inconvenience caused to the nation's 23 million people. Authorities warned of potential power cuts in the coming days due to a breakdown at the Norochcholai coal power plant, a consequence of the outage.

Sri Lanka primarily relies on hydropower for electricity generation, supplementing it with coal and oil to meet additional demand. The country experienced a similar outage in December 2023 due to a system failure in a major transmission line.

Sri Lankans endured prolonged blackouts during the summer of 2022 amidst an unprecedented economic crisis. The power crisis intensified as Colombo struggled to import sufficient oil and coal reserves due to depleted foreign reserves.