Nationwide power outage in Sri Lanka: What we know so far

Sri Lanka is experiencing a countrywide power outage due to a system failure, a government official said. Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), the country’s power monopoly, is working to restore power, CEB spokesperson Noel Priyantha said as per news agency Reuters.

In 2022, Sri Lankans faced 10-hour power cuts amid a deepening economic crisis that roiled markets. Then, the electricity regulator urged more than a million government employees to work from home to save fuel as Sri Lanka was unable to pay for fuel shipments because of a foreign exchange shortage.

“We made a request to the government to allow the public sector, which is about 1.3 million employees, to work from home for the next two days so we can manage the fuel and power shortages better,” Janaka Ratnayake, Chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka, had then said.

Power cuts were also extended to 13 hours as the country faced its worst economic crisis in decades when foreign exchange reserves fell by 70%. Sri Lanka had then even struggled to import essentials, including food and fuel.