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Blackout due to tripping of Combined Cycle says GM

The blackout which occurred last Saturday for the third time in the year was due to the tripping of the Combined Cycle generating plant at the Kelanitissa power station, General Manager of the Ceylon Electricity Board D.C Wijeratne said yesterday.

"The 160 MW power plant which has to be tuned regularly has a tendency of tripping off and this was what happened in the last occasions as well. The CEB has made a full inquiry into the incidents and has identified that the tripping was due to a fire alarm within the generating plant," he said.

Meanwhile CEB Chairman M.Zubair in a press release apologised to the consumers and the public for the inconvenience caused by the power failures and assured that every endeavour will be made to prevent the recurrence of such incidents.

"At the time of the failure on Saturday the plant was running with a load of about 120 MW. The generator's gas turbine part supplied 87 MW and the balance was supplied by the steam plant. The total demand just prior to the tripping was 777 MW.

Once the tripping occurred the other generators also tripped in a cascade manner. But immediate steps were taken to restore the supply in stages," the Chairman said reminding the public that the last 12 months have been spent in refurbishing the system which was in a relatively poor condition.

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