Starting today, Wednesday, the Ecuadorian Government will implement eight-hour nightly power outages in the country for four days due to the severe drought and a curfew in six provinces during the national blackout.

Ecuador will implement eight-hour nationwide nightly blackouts and teleworking in the public sector to deal with the worst drought in the last 60 years that threatens its hydroelectric plants, the government reported on Tuesday.

Due to the worst decline recorded in the last 61 years, the National Government announced, on Monday, September 16, 2024, nightly blackouts for four days throughout Ecuador to “responsibly manage” the country’s electrical system.

Starting Monday, September 23, 2024, the electrical service will be suspended throughout the country from 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. the following day.

This measure will be applied on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of the following week (last days of September 2024).

The Ecuadorian electrical sector was declared in emergency in April due to low river flows.

Ecuador faces an energy deficit of about 1,000 megawatts, of which at least 100 will be covered by a thermal barge hired by the government.

$12 million for each hour of blackout

Ecuador, with 17 million inhabitants, loses around $12 million for each hour of blackout, according to the Chamber of Commerce of the port of Guayaquil, the commercial hub of the nation.

Perhaps for this reason, and unlike other previous periods of electricity rationing, where power cuts occurred during the day in different time slots and in different areas, this time they will cover the entire country at the same time and will take place during the night.

“The established cut-off time has been chosen with the purpose of generating the least possible impact on productive activities and the development of work days,” said the Executive.

In this regard, the Government added that it will also impose teleworking in the public sector on Thursday and Friday of this week, September 19 and 20, and next week, September 26 and 27.

Starting this September 18, with a curfew

The National Police of Ecuador will deploy more than 46,000 agents to guarantee security during the night blackouts announced by the Government.

The curfew will apply in the coastal provinces of Guayas, Los Ríos, Manabí, Orellana, Santa Elena, El Oro and in the municipality Camilo Ponce Enríquez, in the province of Azuay.

This rationing, according to the Minister of the Interior, Mónica Palencia, will be accompanied by a curfew, which will be decreed as a security measure in the country, affected by the violence of organized crime, under the state of “internal armed conflict” that President Daniel Noboa declared at the beginning of the year.

This Thursday, the Armed Forces are expected to take control of the Mazar reservoir, the second largest in the country, as ordered by Noboa in the previous days to avoid sabotage in this critical infrastructure for supplying the national electricity demand.

The Mazar reservoir, located in the southern Andean province of Azuay, has a capacity of 410 million cubic meters of water and serves to feed a complex of three hydroelectric plants located in the Paute River basin with an installed capacity of 1,757 megawatts.

However, in recent days the level of this water reserve has dropped dramatically due to the lack of rain that the Andes mountain range has experienced for several months.

Written by: Oscar El Blue

Ecuador afronta un déficit energético a nivel nacional y posible toque de queda en seis provincias