Ecuador remained in partial lockdown on Wednesday night and temporarily in the dark with the start of a new period of scheduled power cuts due to the energy crisis it is dragging, due to the severe drought recorded in its main hydroelectric plants, which prevents it from meeting the national demand for electricity.
Since 22:00 local time (5:00 in Spain) this Thursday, the lights of the country have been turned off in scheduled power cuts by area and lasting between two and five hours. And so the situation will continue until 6:00 in the morning, local time (1:00 in the afternoon in mainland Spain).
These outages will continue for at least four more nights.from Monday to Thursday next week, as announced by the government, which defined the situation as “the worst dry season (dry season) in the last 61 years”, where the lack of rain has caused the water level of the main reservoirs to drop to critical levels, according to Efe.
This is the third period of power cuts in less than a year.after one that occurred at the end of 2023 and another that occurred in mid-April of this year, due to climatic factors that affected its main hydroelectric plants.
Unlike previous periods of electricity rationing where power cuts occurred during the day, this time they will be carried out at night as the government considers this to have a lesser impact.
The Chamber of Industry and Production (CIP) claims that each of these nights of cuts will result in losses worth 20 million dollars.
Curfew
During the hours of the ban, a curfew was declared in the six provinces and in one municipality of a seventh province where the last state of emergency declared by the president is still in effect. Daniel Noboato confront organized crime gangs, whose fight was elevated earlier this year by the president to the category of “internal armed conflicts” to classify them as terrorist groups.
Among the territories subject to curfew are some of the main cities of Ecuador like the port Guayaquilthe most populous city in the country, and the coast Blanketin the province of Manabi.
In other jurisdictions without curfews, law enforcement has deployed police and military personnel to the streets to conduct patrols focused on monitoring banks, gas stations and prisons, among other hotspots.
In total, more than 46,000 police officers and 31,000 soldiers were mobilized during this first night.according to data from government entities, which have also installed checkpoints at the entrances and exits of the largest cities.
Only the Galapagos Islands, located 1,000 kilometers west of Ecuador’s mainland coast, were exempt from the nationwide scheduled blackouts. The archipelago is powered independently of Ecuador’s national electricity system, mainly by combustion generators.
Water addiction
Ecuador’s electricity generation matrix is composed of more than 70% hydroelectric energy, based mainly on the Coca Codo Sinclair plant, the largest in the country with 1,500 megawatts of power, and on the Mazar reservoir, the second largest in Ecuador in terms of capacity, which feeds a complex of three hydroelectric plants that together represent an additional 1,757 megawatts of power.
Any impact on these two infrastructures makes the country’s electricity system vulnerable. to meet national demand, which in certain moments of crisis has been resolved thanks to the importation of electricity supplied by Colombia.
Since Wednesday, the Armed Forces have taken control of the Coca Codo Sinclair factory and the Mazar reservoir on instructions from Noboa, who fears possible sabotage of the operation of these facilities in a period of maximum crisis.
Earlier this month, 11 of Ecuador’s 24 provinces experienced a power outage that lasted several hours. due to a breakdown recorded in the Paute hydroelectric plant, according to the National Electricity Company (Cenace). Added to the drought is the lack of maintenance and investment in the electricity sector for more than five years.
To address this situation, the government has launched processes for awarding contracts and leasing energy production.
A floating power plant leased from the Turkish company Karpowership has been operational since Monday.of the Karadeniz energy group, which generates 100 megawatts, while in the coming weeks a second vessel with similar characteristics and a capacity of 250 megawatts is expected to be rented.
