
Trading at the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) came to a standstill this morning, following a power failure at the World Trade Centre, in Colombo.
Trading was halted for some 20 minutes, before it resumed again at around 10.15 a.m.
Sri Lanka is currently undergoing over 7 hours of scheduled power cuts since Monday on a daily basis, which followed a nationwide blackout on Sunday which again lasted for over 7 hours, the longest in some 20 years.
The generators at the World Trade Centre had reportedly failed to work due to a technical issue which resulted in the entire twin towers losing power supply.
Adrian / March 16, 2016
The incompetence at every level is staggering. But at the end of the day each one will pass the buck, and all will justify it with some lame excuse and move forward like nothing ever happened. This is why people never learm from their shortcomings and breakdowns in the system. How do we improve as a society, as a people or person?
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ballah / March 16, 2016
not only the stock market, but also the whole country has come to a standstill…what a change these yamapalana buggers have given the people
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Native Vedda / March 16, 2016
maalumiris
Are you there?
Unleash your very talented engineers to fix this simple problem. Where are they hiding?
Or bring in Chinese.
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Point of View / March 16, 2016
Or bring the Indians. Aren’t they already here Seimens Power, India !
Whatever is working, may be due to their work. Our Engineers are busy doing politics just like the GMOA members.
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Non PhD / March 16, 2016
Solve the problem using 2 prong approach.
1.If SL engineers can not fix it bring in other Asian engineers from Japan, or Singapore or Hong Kong, China or India
2. If SL detectives are unable to effectively investigate and rule out sabotage/ conspiracy bring in Western Investigative agencies with the help of respective governments.
The third prong is important for the survival of SL.
Make MR Bros & Co to gracefully retire from politics using citizens power.
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Point of View / March 16, 2016
There is a rumour that RWs life is in danger. Apparently he was wearing a bullet proof vest yesterday and the security was tight around him. He was not allowed to move freely. Location of the meeting was moved from Hyde Park to Lipton Circle.
What are they waiting for ? High time to put those buggers in and throw the keys. Hambantota thugs do not understand clean politics !
Is the party bigger than the country for MS ? He will have blood in his hands if no action taken.
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words / March 17, 2016
Take action on rumours??? Throw people behind bars on rumours!!
Great stuff mate!!
Just the recipe for a vibrant democracy!!!
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sekara / March 16, 2016
There apparently are long standing problems in the CEB.
I am informed that it has too many electrical engineers and too few mechanical engineers, a contrived situation that has been there for decades.
Some earlier failures in turbines could not be addressed because the EEs thought that they know enough thermodynamics to run thermal power plants.
Coal technology is new to us.
The CEB should have recruited mechanical engineers and technologists in large numbers and trained them in coal power. That did not happen.
The failure this time though was not a thermal power plant failure but the failure of an inadequately maintained transformer affecting the thermal power system as there was no provision for emergency shut-down.
Several senior engineers were not keen on rushing into coal power because it was new technology and had to be learned. Low operating costs tempted the government.
Our engineers are competent but pettiness is a serious flaw among several. Engineers succeed only as a team not as egoistic individuals.
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Native Vedda / March 17, 2016
sekara
“There apparently are long standing problems in the CEB. ”
What was Champika doing as the power minister for all those years? Did he spend all his time at the ministry writing his imagined history?
“I am informed that it has too many electrical engineers and too few mechanical engineers, a contrived situation that has been there for decades”
Whose job was it to prepare the annual budget for the power plant? If missed first year, then the vacancies should have been filled, trained, in the subsequent years. I take it that those surplus engineers had a comfortable life though there was overmanning in the plant.
Chinese demanded $150 Millions to repair the fault. But the fault should have been detected when the plant was commissioned or the contract with Chinese company should have included a clause that required the contractors to pay for the fault, CEB should have withheld some part of the payment for the next three or four years.
What was the minister doing when the agreement was signed, and subsequent failure was detected?
“Our engineers are competent but pettiness is a serious flaw among several. Engineers succeed only as a team not as egoistic individuals.”
You seem to justify their complacency and incompetency with their pettiness, the question is whether these were professionals in the first place?
Professionals improve their competency, knowledge, skills, every second of the day, including their managerial skills. However in this island it is not the case. The top management also turns a blind eye because of political interference and nepotism.
The best engineers want to perform, improve every day, themselves and fellow employees. Given that the political culture is such nothing get done nothing improved, ….. they have decided to hit the bottom of the pit. No accountability.
The political culture is driving the best engineers away from this island. What we are left with is Chambika Ranawake an Electrical Engineer by profession.
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sekara / March 17, 2016
I made no excuse of any kind.
I pointed to an inherent flaw in the CEB that had to be attended to long ago, especially as thermal power got to dominate the supply side.
I am aware that things go wrong more easily with heat engines than with electric power devices than with hydraulic machines
Coal power is old hat for the West, India, China, Japan and Australia, but a new game altogether here with little formal training at various levels and a consequent lack of expertise.
More coal power is planned: that is a source of future worry, based on my my above observation.
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Wow / March 17, 2016
mr. two prong approach.
typical overly westernized mentality. Don’t wait for a local solution, bring in foreigners.. they are better than us.. AND get rid of MR. even though he was not mentioned in the article he is still to blame :D too many cliches mate
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KA Sumanasekera / March 16, 2016
Batalanada Ranil and Bodhi Sira can’t run the Noroncholi Power Plant, let alone run our 2500 year old Nation.
Is it the power of breaking Pol( Coconuts) at Hindu kovils?.
Five or Six yahapalana heavies have already carcked it, despite Batalanada Ranil rushing to Thripathi to get an anti dose for coconuts.
Now power plants right across the country are breaking down like a pack of cards.
The situation in the country is so desperate that the Yahapalana PM is leading protest marches against Dalit Uni kids who are asking for jobs.
Even privately owned and maintained Diesel Generators are on the blink. .
Has Jailing our Dalit Monks who are looking after abandoned Elephants, really irritated and upset the Gods in their temples?.?.
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Rajash / March 16, 2016
2,500 years of culture brought to kneels!
Bring the Jaffna man to fix it.
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SJ / March 16, 2016
You mean Mahendran?
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Native Vedda / March 17, 2016
SJ
“You mean Mahendran?”
Or Zhang Yun, Li Chongxi, Zhou Yongkang, General Gu Junshan, …. Lalu Prasad, Karunanithy, Amma, … and other 2,200 senior government officials.
If they refused to serve here in this country, why not ask Basil, Mahinda, …. and the clan back to where they were?
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SJ / March 17, 2016
“Bring the Jaffna man to fix it.”
The requirement was a man from Jaffna.
Mahendran’s was the first name that came to mind in the context.
Really really really sorry if you are upset that I did not name you.
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Native Vedda / March 17, 2016
SJ
“Really really really sorry if you are upset that I did not name you.”
You would have made yourself the greatest fool ever to type in this forum. You would be disappointed to hear that I am not from Jaffna.
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
By the way Both Arjuna’s parents were born in Colombo. He was born in USA, lived there for five years, and lived in Ghana for another five years, he spent another five years in the UK studying for his first and masters degrees.
Where did you get the idea Arjuna is a Jaffna man?
Please do some research before you start typing.
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Rajash / March 17, 2016
SJ
“The requirement was a man from Jaffna. “
No you are wrong
The requirement is to fix the recurring power cut.
The solution is to find the right man with the knowhow to fix it
The Resource is probably a Jaffna man.
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SJ / March 17, 2016
Rajash
Please read your earlier comment and then mine. If there is a contradiction, kindly explain. I feel rather thick these days with a nasty cold.
NV
Does your bio data of AM make him an American or a Ghanaian or a Brit, (or as some say a Singaporean)?
Had he not fouled up his new job, all Jaffna Tamils in Colombo (and even in Jaffna) as well as the Canadian, British, American, French, German, Australian, Scandinavian and other Diaspora Tamils would have readily identified themselves with AM as Jaffna Tamils.
Sorry to learn that you do not belong to the tribe. (Or, to be politically correct, can I be sorry?)
Your Vedda identity slipped my mind. So the omission causes no offence, and thank the Lord thrice over for that.
As for fools that rush in, not many, including me, can hold a candle to you.
Keep jogging. Good for you.
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Rajash / March 17, 2016
SJ
lets not split hairs.
cheer up
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Native Vedda / March 17, 2016
SJ
“Does your bio data of AM make him an American or a Ghanaian or a Brit, (or as some say a Singaporean)? “
Precisely that was the question I was alluding to.
How do you define a person, is it by his/her birth place, by his/her citizenship (by descent or naturalization), by his/her parents birth place going back to several generations, where he/she was educated, by his/her ancestral race/religion/region,language, his/her stupidity, …… ?
Does a child born to an Islander and a Cuban become an icecube?
Or is it defined by his/her genetics?
“Keep jogging. Good for you”
I don’t think you should convert a convert.
Am I the only one witnessing the performance of an intellectual gymnast?
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sekara / March 21, 2016
Dear Native
Between you and me, sorry to disappoint you.
While meditating on a melting ice cube (it is pretty hot here you know) I realized that the nitty witty intellectual gem that you spotted—
“Does a child born to an Islander and a Cuban become an icecube?”— has a little flaw. You could check with any gemologist.
I think that the joke concerns one from far away Iceland— the piece of land that Europe almost forgot when it was busy saving its poor bankers not long ago —who is to be crossed and not anyone from any old island. “Cubans are not racist, so it is OK”— one may well justify.
But seriously, do not look at joke websites while jogging. One or the other if not both could go awry.
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SJ / March 21, 2016
NV
“Does a child born to an Islander and a Cuban become an icecube?”
That truly is a nitty witty intellectual gem.
Do please concentrate on the jogging.
Rajash
Thanks. Sweet of you.
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Native Vedda / March 21, 2016
SJ
“Do please concentrate on the jogging.”
Thanks.
The problem is that I am unable to avoid intellectual gymnast on my path.
Otherwise, everything is hunky dory.
You should consider giving up Intellectual Gymnastics and join the joggers.
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SJ / March 22, 2016
It does not take an intellectual giant to get what I say.
A bit of intellectual honesty will do.
I walk, you jog.
Good for us.
Bye for now on this not so intellectual journey.
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Dinesh / March 16, 2016
May be Rajapakse sabotage this too LOL…this is becoming a joke now
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words / March 17, 2016
Yes… he went in disguise to the WTC too yesterday and pulled the plug on the generators there! Didn’t you hear?? Lol
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Wow / March 17, 2016
Rajapakse was seen moving around suspiciously near the World trade center. Reliable sources claim that he may have a hand in the lightning strike on lakshapana power plant as well. Some say the gods are angry because they are wasting good coconuts..
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Ruvan / March 18, 2016
Dear President, PM, and 100 odd cabinet ministers!
Just think for a moment! What have you guys been doing for the last 14 months?
Just take a moment to look at the crowd of the Hyde Park rally organized by the Joint Opposition! My point is not the size of the crowd but the fact that this crowd is not going to be smaller in the future! It could snowball sooner rather than later!
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