MONKEY BLAMED FOR SRI LANKAN BLACKOUT

The island of Sri Lanka is already under strain with electricity outages. Power cuts have been implemented to ensure the country keeps up with the demand.

On Sunday, a widespread blackout affected the island’s 22 million people. But this blackout was different, it wasn’t planned and it wasn’t caused by a human.

The country’s power minister, Kumara Jayakody, explained on Sunday that the power cut, which lasted six hours, was caused by a monkey that disrupted a grid station in a Colombo suburb.

According to the minister, the animal had come into contact with the transformer at the station, disrupting supply to the entire country.

Details on whether the monkey survived the incident are unclear at this moment.

The monkey’s disruption also affected Sri Lanka’s only 900 MW coal-fired power plant which caused the plant to operate in safe mode.

Sri Lanka’s electricity problem is very similar to that of South Africa. The island’s state-run power monopoly, the Ceylon Electricity Board hasn’t been able to keep up with the demands of a growing population, especially when maintenance hasn’t been done over the last few decades.

Image credit: Sky News