Sri Lankan officials have attributed a nationwide power outage to an unfortunate encounter between a monkey and a grid transformer at the Panadura Power Station, located south of Colombo. Though no mention was made of the monkey’s condition following the incident, I’m guessing “toast” was the most likely outcome.
The fact that a single monkey can
take out an entire country’s power grid is, frankly, ungood—as my buddy
always termed such unfortunate events. This highlights one of the limitations
of being a small island nation: you aren’t connected to a vast network of power
grids. And though Sri Lanka is small—something like six times smaller than the
state of Montana—it supports a much higher population density, with over 22
million people compared to Montana’s roughly 1.1 million.
That one monkey pulled the plug on
all of them.
While Sri Lankan officials worked to
resolve the immediate issue, senior engineers pointed to longstanding concerns
about the country’s power infrastructure. Experts have repeatedly warned that
the aging system is vulnerable to failures.
I hope we’re listening.
PHOTO: Wikipedia
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