[1] Following a severe drought that impacted hydroelectric plants, Sri Lanka experienced rolling blackouts for nearly a month from 18 March to 10 April 2019.
[15] 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.
[32] The blackouts were attributed to a massive disruption caused by a monkey, which had apparently intervened to trigger an irreparable damage which made it unable to restore the electricity in most parts of Sri Lanka immediately after the incident had unfolded.
[33][34][35] The Ministry of Power and Energy issued a statement clarifying that an island-wide blackout had occurred after a monkey had broken into a sub-station in Sri Lanka's electrical grid.
[36][37][38] "A monkey has come in contact with our grid transformer, causing an imbalance in the system," as quoted by the Minister of Power and Energy Kumara Jayakody in a press conference.
On 10 February 2025, the Ceylon Electricity Board announced that power cuts would be imposed on a 90-minute schedule across various parts of Sri Lanka on a selected basis on 10 and 11 February 2025 as a precautionary and proactive measure to combat derailments after the monkey induced power outage saga and also to manage electricity demand across four important zones.
[43][44] The Sri Lankan monkey became a trending topic and sparked massive global media attention after being named as the main culprit behind the blackouts.
[49] Others criticized the complacency and fragile nature of Sri Lanka's power grid, with one user writing, "One monkey = total chaos.