Sri Lanka suffers nationwide electricity blackout

COLOMBO, Oct 17: Sri Lanka suffered a nationwide electricity blackout on Saturday after the national grid tripped, possibly because solar power generation exceeded consumption, officials said.

The country was without grid power for more than two hours, with no clear timeline for when electricity would be restored.

State-run Electricity Distribution Lanka (EDL) said engineers were working to fix a fault affecting the entire grid, and suspected excess solar power had caused the breakdown.

Energy Minister Anura Karunathilaka said authorities hoped to restore supplies "stage by stage".

"We request rooftop solar system owners to disconnect their systems until further instructions in order to support the restoration efforts," he said in a brief statement.�" AFP