Politics · Sri Lanka Bureau
Sri Lanka ends rolling blackouts after Norochcholai power station restart
The National System Operator has lifted power cuts across Sri Lanka following the successful restoration of Unit 2 at the Lakvijaya Power Station. The move ends a five-day electricity crisis that had gripped the nation.
LSN Sri Lanka ·
Sri Lanka's power crisis has been resolved with the return to service of a major generation unit at the country's largest coal-fired power facility. The National System Operator (NSO) confirmed on Wednesday that Unit 2 of the Norochcholai-based Lakvijaya Power Station had resumed operations, enabling authorities to discontinue rolling blackouts that had been implemented across the grid.
Energy Minister Anura Karunathilaka announced the development following official confirmation from the NSO that the unit was fully operational. The restart represents a critical breakthrough in stabilizing electricity supply after a cascading series of equipment failures that had progressively reduced generating capacity.
The outage began five days earlier when Unit 2 went offline, triggering a shortage of power generation capacity that the NSO could not meet through alternative sources. The extended blackout schedule had disrupted businesses, households, and essential services across the island nation.
With Unit 2 now restored, the NSO indicated that system frequency and demand-supply balance had stabilized sufficiently to permit the lifting of restrictions on electricity distribution. Authorities will continue monitoring grid conditions to prevent further disruptions to the national power network.