President Anura Kumara Dissanayake yesterday (10) led a high-powered Sri Lankan delegation to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for a three-day official visit at the invitation of UAE President Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan to take part in the World Government Summit 2025, the Government confirmed. It is understood that President Dissanayake will explore energy supply and investment opportunities while he attends the forum.

Meanwhile, in Sri Lanka, the public remains in the dark about what happened on Sunday (9) when the island once again faced an unplanned 7-hour-long islandwide power outage. With the incident, now more than a day and a half old, the Government and the relevant authorities at the power regulator, the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka, the State-owned utility supplier – Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), nor the subject matter ministry failed to provide clarity on why the islandwide power outage happened? No technical explanation as to what happened and why it happened has been provided to the public. This Government came into power claiming they would improve transparency and accountability. However, they have failed to practice what they preached. Shame. This Government which touted professionalism and the numerous subject matter experts in their ranks, has failed to communicate effectively to the public during a crisis, once again.

When the Government did communicate on the incident, it was more a commentary than a statement grounded in facts. First, the Minister of Energy Kumara Jayakody, an engineer by profession according to the Ministry of Energy website, told broadcast media that the cause was due to a monkey falling into a power transformer at the CEB Substation in Panadura. Later, the CEB stated that it was due to an ‘emergency situation’ that broke out at the Panadura Grid Sub Station. Lastly, a statement issued by the Ministry of Energy attempted to ‘pass the buck’ on to previous governments, stating: “Preliminary investigations have indicated that the actions of the previous governments, who had acted without foresight and understanding of maintaining the stability of the national electricity system, and their lack of understanding the technology, led to this situation.” President Dissanayake and the Government must wake up from their slumber and realise the ‘honeymoon’ period of their coming into power, has now passed. They need to act as a responsible government, part of which is to be clear and transparent in how they govern. The public has no appetite for failure anymore. The President must address the communication issue this Government has, if not, lack of clarity will lead to more crises down the road. 

The status quo and the vulnerability of the national power grid had been forewarned. In January, The Sunday Morning reported on the vulnerabilities in the national grid due to poor planning and stumbling in the absorption of renewable energy sources. It was reported that the CEB was facing a serious risk of system failure during holidays due to the sudden influx of solar-based Renewable Energy (RE) into the grid, particularly when electricity demand is low. However, it seems that despite knowledge of the vulnerabilities, no immediate remedial action was taken (at least ones which were disclosed), nor had a public warning or guidelines issued regarding the vulnerabilities. 

Yesterday, on the side-lines of the Colombo Air Symposium (CAS) held in Colombo, some members of the armed forces, foreign diplomats, and visiting security experts expressed their shock at the islandwide power outage and the lack of clarity around what happened. “Does Sri Lanka take its energy security seriously? How can this happen, for the entire country? Was it a monkey that caused it? How is that possible?” a diplomat questioned. Another diplomat asked if there was an annual national security audit, and why such vulnerabilities were not flagged to the government and the Parliament. The embarrassment on the faces of local armed forces personnel was visible as they struggled to answer the question. “No comment” one senior officer was heard saying.

Therefore, Mr. President, please put your house in order. This should have been addressed before your departure overseas. The public expects more than this from the Government they have given a landslide mandate. The Government must move quickly to inform the public as to what caused the incident and be transparent about what is being done about it. And someone must be held accountable, shouldn’t they? If not, what has changed with the new Government in control?