Energy minister apologizes for poor communication, says there will be some blackouts

Energy Minister Roberto Luque admitted Monday that lack of coordination between his office and local power companies was confusing utility customers. “We are all frustrated by the poorly planned communication,” he said, promising that future messaging will be coordinated.

Luque’s apology followed conflicting reports sent out by power companies in Quito and other cities, in which the companies posted notices of blackouts, while the Energy Ministry said there would be no blackouts. “Obviously, there were service interruptions and there will be more in the coming days as we clean and repair three hydro plants.”

The blackouts were the result of heavy rainfall Friday and Saturday that overflowed reservoirs at the Coca Codo Sinclair and Agoyán power plants, depositing large amounts of sediments into the intake pools and forcing shutdowns.

Officials in Quito, Guayaquil, Cuenca, and other areas where outages occurred, complained about the miscommunication.

Luque said most blackouts will be for short durations. “We have partially restored generation at Coca Codo Sinclair and output should increase during the week,” he said. “One reason for the confusion is that Colombia was not able to cover our electric shortfall since it amounted to almost 15% of total hydro production, Luque said. “They are having maintenance issues of their own, so their generation is limited as well.”

Power outages, usually of less than two hours, continued on Monday throughout the country. In Cuenca, electric provider Centrosur, posted a schedule of service suspension for five urban sectors. Most suspensions ended by 4 in the afternoon.