Sri Lanka hit by nationwide power outage

Sri Lanka was hit by a nationwide power outage on Saturday (October 17), with officials suspecting that excessive solar power generation may have contributed to a fault in the national grid.

The outage lasted more than two hours, while engineers worked to repair the fault, state-owned electricity distributor Electricity Distribution Lanka said.

Energy Minister Anura Karunathilaka said authorities hoped to restore electricity in phases. He also urged rooftop solar system owners to disconnect their systems until further notice to help restore the grid.

Sri Lanka experienced a similar nationwide blackout in February 2025, when restoring power took more than six hours.

The country has installed solar power capacity of more than 3,000 megawatts, while daytime electricity demand ranges from 2,000MW to 2,500MW.