Government announces overnight blackout Wednesday to Thursday for maintenace work

There will be a nationwide overnight power blackout Wednesday night and early Thursday morning, the government announced Sunday morning. According to a presidential office statement, the blackout will begin at 10 p.m. Wednesday and end at 6 a.m. Thursday for “preventive maintenance to electricity distribution networks.”

The power blackout will begin Wednesday night at 10 and end at 6 Thursday morning.

A follow-up statement said the work was necessary to prevent electrical system failures such as the one suffered September 7. “Given the current drought and its impact on hydroelectric production, it is necessary to conduct maintenance procedures to optimize the national power grid,” the statement said.

It continued: “Specifically, we will conduct work on transformer equipment at four substations operated by the national Celec Transelectric company. We expect the work to cost about $1.19 million dollars. We apologize in advance for any inconveniences the project causes.”

The statement said the nighttime blackout schedule was chosen to avoid major disruptions to the daily lives of Ecuadorians, and to cause minimal loses to the productive sector.