Govt. acknowledges solar power oversupply to national grid on Sundays

Wednesday, 12 March 2025 05:27 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Charumini de Silva

The Government yesterday admitted to an oversupply of solar power to the national grid particularly on Sundays, whilst ensuring that engineers along with the Ceylon Electricity Board are exploring ways to resolve the issue.

“There is an imbalance between the power supply and demand, especially from small-scale power producers on Sundays. This imbalance has led the national grid to be more susceptible to disruptions,” said Cabinet Spokesman and Minister Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa responding to a question posed at the post-Cabinet meeting media briefing yesterday.

Noting that the issue has persisted for a long time, he said that the high penetration of solar energy has led to low system inertia in the national grid.

“This instability means that even a minor incident of an animal interfering with power lines or a tree falling could trigger cascading disconnections, potentially causing a total power failure,” he explained.

Dr. Jayatissa said unlike hydro and thermal power generation, solar power cannot be regulated in the same way, adding to the challenge.

However, he noted that engineers are actively exploring solutions to stabilise the system and to prevent further disruption. Following the countrywide power failure on 9 February 2025, the CEB issued a press release noting it was triggered by a disturbance at the 33kV Panadura grid substation (GSS), leading to a sudden voltage drop across the network.

“At the time of the incident, over 50% of national electricity demand was met by 800 MW of solar photovoltaic (PV) generation, with additional supply from Lakvijaya Power Plant at Norochcholai (470 MW) and hydropower plants (130 MW),” it said.

“Due to the high penetration of non-synchronous solar PV generation, the grid had low system inertia, making it vulnerable to faults,” it continued.

“The disturbance resulted in an imbalance between generation and demand, leading to cascading disconnections and a total power failure. A sharp voltage drop caused multiple solar PV systems to disconnect, worsening the imbalance and further destabilising the grid.”

One of the measures the CEB said it would take to prevent a recurrence was curtailing ground-mounted solar PV generation (only when necessary) during low-demand periods to mitigate instability risks. This will not affect rooftop solar.

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