The nationwide blackouts occurred due to a transmission technical failure at the Kerawalapitiya Grid-Sub station.
[15] Sri Lanka as a whole faced major nationwide blackout during March 2016 which lasted for over eight hours.
[16] Localised regional power cuts are common in Sri Lanka although nationwide blackouts are rare.
The blackout began when a three-phase fault at Kerawalapitiya thermal power plant took an unusually long time to disconnect from the Sri Lankan electrical system.
The missing generation induced a very rapid and severe decline in utility frequency that the network's protective devices could not arrest.