ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s administrative capital of Sri Jayewardenepura was gripped by an extended power failure as a work-to-rule campaign launched by engineers at the state power utility.

A 220kV high tension grid supplying Sri Jayewardenepura, Dehiwala, Pannipitiya and Ratmalana failed at around 8.00 am Tuesday.

CEB’s engineers are on a work-to-rule campaign from May 08, over the current administration cancelling cheap coal power plants and instead moving towards higher cost liquefied natural gas plants and a take-or-pay plan to outsource fuel procurement.

Engineers had warned that they will not be ‘on-call’ on off-days and after work, and come back to work dropping everything else as they do usually when something goes wrong.

Under a work-to-rule engineers warned that they will work by the book and will not take short cuts to quickly restore power.

Sources at the utility say a 220kV high tension line failure requires more safety checks and quick restoration tactics followed in the last mile low voltage distribution networks are not usually taken. (Colombo/May15/2018)

http://economynext.com/Power_fails_in_Sri_Lanka_s_capital_as_CEB_work_to_rule_begins_to_bite-3-10633-8.html