By: Staff Writer
February 16, Colombo (LNW): All generators at the Lakvijaya Power Plant in Norochcholai, which had been non-operational following the recent island-wide power outage, have now been fully restored and reconnected to the national grid.
According to a spokesperson of the power plant, two generators have already been connected to the national grid, while the third generator can also be connected if necessary.
Following the island-wide power outage on February 9, the Norochcholai Power Plant’s protocol system was activated, causing all three generators to shut down. This had resulted in a loss of 900 megawatts of electricity to the national grid.
In response, the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) imposed island-wide power cuts, lasting one-and-a-half-hours on February 10 and 11, and one-hour on February 12.
However, by last morning (14), the third generator of the Norochcholai Power Plant was successfully reconnected to the system.
Subsequently, the Ministry of Energy announced yesterday (14) that daily power cuts would be discontinued.
With the first generator, which had remained idle, also connected to the national grid later in the afternoon, the Norochcholai Power Plant has now contributed 600 megawatts of electricity to the national grid.
A unit of Sri Lanka’s Norochcholai Power Plant has been reconnected to the national grid on Friday morning, making it unnecessary to continue with power cuts, the country’s power utility said.
“One unit of the Norochcholai Power Plant was successfully reconnected to the National Grid this morning,” Ceylon Electricity Board Media Spokesman Dhammike Wimalaratne said.“As a result, demand management measures will no longer be necessary starting today.”
The CEB imposed 90 minute power cuts on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday during the evening peak on a rolling basis to manage demand, after three coal plants were put out of action after a cascading power failure on Sunday.
Sri Lanka had 90 min power cuts on Feb 10 and 11 after coal plant outage The power failure came from the inability of the grid to recover from shocks due to a large volume of rooftop solar power, the Ceylon Electricity Board Engineers’ Union said.
