Power supply went out across Sri Lanka on Saturday after a major failure of the national grid. Officials believe an imbalance caused by solar generation exceeding daytime demand may have led to it. Supply had been off for more than two hours, and the authorities could not say when it would be fully restored.
The state-owned Electricity Distribution Lanka (EDL) said engineers were working to find and repair the fault in the national grid. Excess solar generation is the initial suspected cause.
Energy Minister Anura Karunathilaka said efforts were under way to restore supply in stages. To help, he asked owners of rooftop solar systems to keep them disconnected until further notice.
The national grid failed in a similar way in February 2025, when solar output on a sunny day exceeded demand. It took more than six hours to restore supply then.
Sri Lanka now has a little over 3,000 megawatts of installed solar capacity, while daytime demand is between 2,000 and 2,500 megawatts.
Tax breaks have driven up the use of solar power in the country, and consumers sell surplus electricity to the national grid after meeting their own needs. But balancing generation and demand has created various challenges for the distribution company.
Under government plans, solar capacity is to rise to about 4,400 megawatts within the next three years, a 388 per cent increase on 2024.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report