Power cut imposed

Chaminda PERERA

The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) announced yesterday that a power cut of two hours and 15 minutes will be imposed on 58 towns and Colombo city area during the day time due to a breakdown at the Lakvijaya Power Station, beginning today. Lakvijaya power plant was automatically shut down due to a trip in the transmission line from Norochcholai to Veyangoda.

Accordingly, power will be interrupted during the day until further notice, the CEB sources said.

The generators of the Lakwijaya power station automatically shut down due to a trip in the transmission line from Norochcholai to Veyangoda depriving 300 MW of power to the national grid from yesterday morning.

Engineers of the power station took prompt action to shut down the entire power station as a precautionary measure.

CEB chairman Prof Wimaladharma Abeywickrema said a team of engineers were deployed to resume operations of the power station soon.

He said the engineers would have to inspect the heavy machinery connected to the power generation of the station when a sudden breakdown occurs and they were in the process of inspecting such machinery to ensure that they are not damaged due to the automatic shut down. “The Board is to receive a full account of what actually happened at the power station by this evening. Future action would be taken based on these findings, ” Prof Abeywickrema said.