There is no connection between the power outage and the quality of coal - Energy Minister

Responding to the opposition's accusation that the recent island-wide power outage was caused by the use of low-quality coal, Minister of Energy, Ports and Civil Aviation, Mr. Anura Karunathilaka, addressed Parliament today. The national power grid completely collapsed, plunging the entire island into darkness around 11:44 AM on Saturday, October 17th.

He stated that it has now been confirmed that the cause of this massive power crisis was not due to low-quality coal or a defect at the Kotmale power plant.

Electrical engineers point out that the old coal stock ran out on September 4th, and new coal has been used since then. Instead, this entire breakdown is attributed to controversial maintenance work carried out at a power plant on a public holiday when the system was in a highly vulnerable state.

On that public holiday, electricity demand was at a minimum, and with bright sunshine, a large surplus of renewable energy was generated within the system. A similar island-wide system breakdown occurred previously in February 2025, and a key lesson learned by authorities from that incident is that the national system is highly vulnerable on days with low demand and a surplus of renewable energy. This crisis was created particularly against the backdrop of approximately 10 more megawatts of renewable energy being added to the national system after that February incident.

The sequence of events took a critical turn around 11:43 AM. At that time, approximately 1137 MW of capacity was being generated through power plants and small hydropower plants under the control of the National System Control Center. It is believed that 516 MW came from the coal power plant and 621 MW from hydropower plants. Additionally, several megawatts were being generated through other renewable energy sources not under the control or visibility of system operators. At this point, maintenance work was underway on one unit of the coal power plant, and a technical complication arose, causing the power output of that machine to rapidly decrease and the system frequency to begin falling.

In response to this sudden drop in frequency, attempts were made to supply more power to the system through other power plants, but it was unsuccessful. The national system's balance was completely lost due to the generation capacity that left the system without control or visibility being higher than the new energy added to the system. However, apart from the coal power plant that disconnected from the system according to its inherent mechanisms, no other power plant experienced a shutdown at this moment.

Immediately upon learning of this island-wide emergency, the President and the Minister in charge of Power directly intervened and initiated coordination with the National System Control Center. By 12:37 PM, officials were able to perform the first restoration of the system, and the President and the Minister personally monitored the operations of the System Control Center until around 5:00 PM, until the high-voltage system was restored. After strenuous efforts, power supply was restored to all consumers on the island by 9:05 PM that night.

However, the Minister has three main questions regarding this breakdown. The most important issue is why such risky maintenance work was chosen to be carried out at the coal power plant on a day when demand was minimal and the system was in a highly vulnerable state. Relevant officials have already been questioned about this, and the Minister has stated that a comprehensive investigation will be conducted through the Ministry Secretary, and answers are expected. Authorities emphasize that the collapse of the entire national system when a single machine goes out of operation due to a technical reason is absolutely unacceptable, and they strongly believe that urgent measures must be taken to prevent such situations in the future.