Sri Lanka Restores Power to Most Areas After Roughly Seven-Hour Nationwide Blackout; Expert Committee to Investigate
COLOMBO — Sri Lanka's national grid failed at about 11 a.m. on Saturday, October 17, cutting power across the island; electricity was restored to most areas by Saturday evening after a blackout that the Daily Express put at roughly seven hours, according to the Daily Express and AFP.
The national system operator said the grid was unstable and suspected the failure was linked to solar generation at one point exceeding demand. Sri Lanka's installed solar capacity exceeds 3,000 megawatts, against daytime demand of about 2,000–2,500 megawatts; during the outage, rooftop solar owners were at one point asked to disconnect from the grid. Energy Minister Anura Karunathilaka said the government would appoint a high-level expert committee to investigate, saying: "Our immediate priority is to restore power… We will do everything possible to prevent a recurrence." A reported unit failure at the Upper Kotmale hydropower station remained unconfirmed.
It was not the first such incident: in February 2025, Sri Lanka suffered an island-wide blackout lasting more than six hours, also attributed to a solar surplus. The government aims to expand solar capacity to about 4,400 megawatts within three years. (GSM, following the Daily Express of Sri Lanka and AFP)
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：斯里兰卡拉克维贾亚（诺罗恰莱）电站远眺资料照片。照片：Rehman Abubakr／Wikimedia Commons（CC BY-SA 4.0）。File photo: a distant view of the Lakvijaya (Norochcholai) power station across the lagoon, Sri Lanka. Photo: Rehman Abubakr / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
