Colombo, Feb 9 (IANS): Sri Lankan authorities have been working to restore power following a nationwide outage that occurred on Sunday, the state-owned electricity producer and supplier, Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), announced.

The power outage was caused by an emergency at the Panadura grid substation in the country's Western Province, according to the CEB.

The outage began around 11:30 a.m. local time and persisted for over three hours, with authorities working to restore full service, Xinhua news agency reported.

CEB Chairman Tilak Siyambalapitiya assured the public that prompt action is being taken to restore power. Meanwhile, Secretary to the Ministry of Energy, Professor Udayanga Hemapala, confirmed that the outage was caused by an imbalance in the national grid.

Local media, citing Energy Minister Kumara Jayakody, reported that the outage was triggered by a group of monkeys that entered the substation and caused damage, saying that the animal came into "contact with our grid transformer causing an imbalance in the system".

Meanwhile, the National Water Supply and Drainage Board urged the public to conserve water until power is fully restored.

Sri Lanka has experienced several nationwide power outages in recent years due to issues at substations.

"Engineers are attending to it to try and restore the service as soon as possible," Minister Jayakody said.

The CEB said, "We are making every effort to restore the island-wide power failure as soon as possible".

While power was restored in some areas, it was not immediately clear how much longer the outage would last.

Hospitals and businesses across the island nation of 22 million people have been using generators or inverters.

Sri Lankans had to endure months of electricity blackouts in the summer of 2022 when the country plunged into an economic crisis.

Fuel stations ran out of petrol and diesel, forcing thermal power stations to ration electricity to 13 hours each day.

The 2023 Sri Lankan blackouts were a series of nationwide electrical blackouts that occurred in Sri Lanka on December 9, 2023. Blackouts began at around 5 p.m. local time and lasted for over three hours. The nationwide blackouts occurred due to a systematic failure in the main supply chain and due to a breakdown of the Kotmale Biyagama transmission line.

Sri Lanka also faced a nationwide power failure in 2016.