Island-wide power failure a mistake by an officer, committee finds

The cause of the sudden breakdown in the national power grid was the fault of an electricity superintendent, as per the report of the committee appointed to look into the recent island-wide power failure.

On August 17, the whole country experienced an interruption of the power supply for over 8 hours owing to a transmission failure at the Kerawalapitiya Grid Substation.

Subsequently, Minister of Power Dullas Alahapperuma appointed a committee to probe the incident and its preliminary report was handed over to the Minister on August 24.

The relevant report was submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers today (August 26).

According to Minister Gamini Lokuge, who spoke to media following the meeting, the reason for the power failure had been an unavoidable mistake.

Also speaking to media, Minister S. M. Chandrasena said, the mistake had been committed by an officer when the responsible officer had been absent.

Chandrasena said that Minister Alahapperuma had pointed out at the Cabinet meeting the need to build more power plants such as the Norochcholai power plant.

Meanwhile, Minister Alahapperuma had previously stated that he will resign from his post as the minister if the report finds the Ministry to be at fault for the power failure.

When inquired on the matter, Minister Lokuge responded to journalists saying that there seems to be no need for this [resignation].