Pettah Power Station opened in 1898 and was located on Gasworks Street in the Pettah area of central Colombo.
[1][2] It was Ceylon's second power station after the one on Bristol Street in the Fort area.
[4] Three 1MW Diesel generator sets were added during World War II.
[7] 4MW of diesel units were transferred to Chunnakam Power Station.
[9] By the early 1980s the station's generating capacity stood at 6MW (three 2MW diesel units from the 1950s) and, although each unit was capable of 1.8MW output, they were only operating at 1.5MW each.