The latest island wide power breakdown was a weary confirmation of a pattern that has run for years. Each time, explanations arrive quickly, and each time the public is left with more questions than answers.

One comment keeps returning: substandard coal. Many engineers and commentators argue that the repeated failures at our coal-fired plants cannot be separated from the quality of the fuel fed into them. Poor coal, they say, damages boilers, lowers efficiency and forces unplanned outages. That may well be true. However, a theory repeated often enough can begin to pass for a finding, and it would be unwise to treat it as one before it has been properly tested.

That is precisely why the Special Presidential Commission of Inquiry matters. Established by gazette on 17 April 2026, it was asked to examine whether any irregularities or unlawful acts occurred in coal imports and in electricity generation by the Lanka Coal Company or its successors, from the start of coal-based generation up to 16 April 2026. It is chaired by Supreme Court Justice Gihan Kulatunga, with Justice Aditya Patabendige and Judge Sanjeewa Somaratne as members. Its remit is broad. It covers procurement, supply, quality testing, operational practices and the way coal is eventually used. It must also establish whether substandard coal was in fact imported, what that cost the public purse, and whether contractual terms were breached and payments withheld when they were.

The breadth is welcome, but it is also the reason for the delay. The President has now extended the deadline for the final report from 16 October to 16 December 2026, under Section 4 of the 1978 law. Two more months is not, in itself, scandalous. An inquiry spanning the entire history of coal power in this country, with documents, suppliers and officials to be examined, cannot be rushed without risking shoddy conclusions. A hurried report would be worse than a late one. Still, the public is entitled to ask whether the extension signals thoroughness or an inquiry struggling under the weight of its task.

We must also be honest about history. Sri Lanka has never lacked commissions. Governments change, reports are handed over with ceremony, and then they gather dust in some ministry cupboard. Several have named names, yet few have led to prosecutions. The cynicism of ordinary citizens is not unreasonable; it has been earned. Therefore the real test of this commission will not be the quality of its prose but what follows once its final page is signed.

Here the mandate is promising. The commission is asked to identify the political authorities, public officials, company officers, suppliers and representatives responsible for any established wrongdoing, and to recommend action against them. It is also asked to propose safeguards for future procurement and stronger governance. If the government is serious, it should commit now, in public, to releasing the report in full and to referring its findings to the Attorney General without dilution. Selective publication would damage the very trust this exercise is meant to restore.

At the same time, we should resist the temptation to lay every failure at the door of coal quality. Breakdowns can also stem from ageing equipment, deferred maintenance, weak grid management, thin reserve margins and plain operational error. If the commission confines itself to a single cause, the nation may feel vindicated but remain in the dark. Moreover, the inquiry looks back only to April 2026. The grid must be kept running in the meantime, and neither the Ceylon Electricity Board nor the ministry can shelter behind a pending report while the lights continue to fail.

The cost, besides, is not merely financial, though the losses to the Treasury are real enough. Hospitals, small factories, schools and households carry the daily burden. In an economy still mending after the crisis of recent years, every unplanned outage erodes the confidence of investors and ordinary consumers alike.

What, then, should be done? First, the commission must be given every document and every witness it requires, without obstruction. Second, interim safeguards on coal quality testing should be tightened now rather than after December. Third, the final report must be made public promptly. Finally, those found culpable, whatever their rank or party colours, must face the law.

Energy security is national security. Sri Lanka cannot afford yet another report that explains everything and changes nothing. The commission has until 16 December. The country has waited long enough, and it will be watching closely.