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Friday Nov 15, 2024
Saturday, 29 August 2020 00:13 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
The Ceylon Electricity Board’s failure to implement maintenance protocols and operations-related risk management mechanisms as specified by experts after the blackouts in 2009 and 2015 could have prevented the recent country-wide power outage, the Independent Committee appointed by the Power Ministry said in its interim report yesterday.
The interim report was presented to Power Minister Dullas Allahaperuma on Monday and discussed at the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday. The full report is expected to be handed over in three weeks.
Power Ministry Secretary D.K. Samarakoon who headed the Independent Committee told reporters that they found the CEB took six hours and 16 minutes to restore power transmission due to failures in the units, generation-dispatch mismatches during the back start and system frequency oscillations during energising the 220kV and 132kV systems.
He confirmed that the country-wide outage was caused by an incorrect operation by an Electrical Superintendent at the Kerawalapitiya Grid Substation (KGS), which caused the tripping of the Lakvijaya Power Station. The tripping of Lakvijaya power plant and caused the entire grid to fail and despite multiple efforts to restore power there were technical issues that prevented different power plants from being brought back online.
“We have clearly said in our conclusion that this was triggered due to a mistake which happened during a routine but high-risk maintenance operation. However, we the committee have not seen any evidence that there was an established procedure to follow while performing such a high-risk maintenance task. Normally in any industry, may it be a nuclear power plant, a diesel one or a chemical plant, there is an established procedure or protocol to follow,” Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology Committee Member and Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research Prof. Rahula Attalage said.
He went on to say that even though there was no formal maintenance protocol in place, the other officials who were on duty at the time along with the Electrical Superintendent also had to share the responsibility over the proper execution of the maintenance and accountability could not be placed entirely on one person.
According to the interim report on the outage submitted to the Cabinet, the key reason for the island-wide power interruption on 17 August was due to the three phase to Ground Bus Bar fault due to incorrect operation of the Bus Bar 2 isolator of the Bus Coupler Bay by the Electrical Superintendent – in charge of Kerawalapaitiya Grid Sub Station.
Power Ministry Media Secretary Sulakshana Jayawardana said that the CEB has initiated disciplinary action against the Electrical Superintendent in question. “The head of the CEB can take immediate action like suspending the staff member in question, but a disciplinary inquiry usually runs for about three months,” Jayawardana said.
The committee has made 11 recommendations as remedial measures that the CEB should follow to prevent such an outage in the future.
Firstly, the committee has recommended that the CEB install as standard compliance, systemic and fool proof, safe procedures and maintenance protocols. The implementation of such a procedure will have to be continuously monitored and supervised by qualified, experienced and trained persons. The committee has also recommended a performance evaluation annual appraisal of the system which will be aimed at improving the professionalism of CEB staff.
The committee strongly recommended that the CEB implement the 2018-2037 Long Term Generation Expansion plan, which clearly specifies the correct blend of technologies for the future requirement of the Sri Lanka’s power needs and is aimed at improving system stability and reliability.
The lack of a standardised operations and maintenance related risk management mechanism has also been highlighted by the committee, which called on the CEB to establish such a mechanism which would have a positive impact on the overall system. The report recommends that the power generators investigate better means of using past daily loading records of the feeders to predict more accurately the load demands which need to be met.
Further, the committee has recommended that key personnel involved in control centres of power plants as well as those in control centres at the CEB get professional training and become experts in their duties. (AF)
