Sri Lanka faces a major power disruption as the Ceylon Electricity Board works to address a sub-station emergency, with hospitals resorting to generators amid ongoing economic struggles.
Nationwide Power Outage Strikes Sri Lanka Amid Economic Challenges
Nationwide Power Outage Strikes Sri Lanka Amid Economic Challenges
An emergency sub-station failure leads to widespread blackouts affecting hospitals across the island.
Sri Lanka is grappling with a significant power outage that has swept across the nation, forcing many vital services, including hospitals, to depend on generators for electricity. The blackout commenced around 11:30 AM local time (06:00 GMT) and remains unresolved, causing widespread disruption.
Officials from the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) attribute the outage to an unexpected emergency at a sub-station, with efforts underway to restore power. Energy Minister Kumara Jayakody attributed the incident to an unusual cause: a monkey's interaction with a grid transformer, leading to a system imbalance, as reported by the AFP news agency.
“Engineers are currently addressing the issue to ensure the service is restored as promptly as possible,” stated the minister. The CEB reassured the public that they are exerting every effort to rectify the island-wide blackout swiftly.
As the power outage affects the daily lives of 22 million citizens, hospitals and numerous businesses are finding alternative means to maintain operations through the use of generators or inverters. This incident echoes the struggles faced by Sri Lanka during its severe economic crisis in 2022, when widespread blackouts had become a common occurrence.
