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Faulty alarms, cause of power failures

by Rashomi silva

The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) investigations have revealed that the malfunctioning of the Kalanitissa Combined Power Station has caused the recent recurrent isalandwide power failures, highly informed sources told the Daily News yesterday.

According to information, the Power Plant has violated most of the contractual conditions, however higher authorities seem to be lethargic in taking action against the contractors sources alleged.

The most recent power failure on January 11 was a result of the false fire alarm of the Power Plant. According to a senior CEB official the fire alarm of the combined power plant has tripped off emitting Carbon Dioxide gas even though there was no signs of a fire.

When the gas was emitted the power plant had tripped off automatically collapsing the islandwide power system. A similar situation developed on January 3, when the steam turbine of the power plant tripped off automatically resulting an islandwide power failure.

In the Kalanitissa Combined Power Plant, four power plants and a gas turbine are all connected to a one bus bar. When the gas turbine or any single power plant fails the entire system collapses, officials said.

CEB has under taken large scale development projects, since Minister Karu Jayasuriya took over as the Minister of Power and Energy, officials added. Under the rehabilitation programme of Polpitiya Power Station, the circuit breaker of the power plant was to be replaced, however two days prior to the replacement, the circuit breaker blasted again resulting in an islandwide power failure on January 6.

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