As blackouts begin, government talks new power barges, Peru transmission lines and cloud seeding

Early reports on overnight electric blackouts are “positive,” according to a government social media post Thursday morning. “The rationing schedule was carried out as planned and the National Electricity Operator [Cenace] conducted maintenance operations on 15 of the 70 transmission substations operating in the country,” a 6 a.m. statement from the Energy Ministry said.

An electric utility crew works on a power substation Wednesday night in Milagro.

The Ministry said more maintenance will be conducted during next week’s blackouts, beginning Monday night.

In Cuenca, several residents reported their scheduled blackouts did not occur. “We unplugged our appliances and were ready but the power never went out. I am not complaining but do not understand why our lights stayed on,” one Facebook post read. Similar reports were posted by residents of Quito and Guayaquil.

On Wednesday, Energy Minister Antonio Goncalves said he is “expediting” the process to lease more power generation barges. “Due to emergency circumstances, we are speeding up procurement of a larger thermoelectric generation barge from [Turkish company] Karpowership, and we may add two more after that,” he said

In an interview on Radio América Quito, Goncalves said the new barge would have a larger generation capacity than the one that began operating last week in Guayaquil. “It will produce 240 to 250 Megawatts and possibly more,” he said, adding that the barge could be operational by late October.

Goncalves also announced that work has been completed on new high voltage lines connecting Ecuador and Peru. “With the upgrades we will be able to purchase more electricity, if needed, from Peru and we are in talks with their Energy Ministry about future purchases,” he said.

Because of changes in the weather, Goncalves said cloud-seeding operations may be carried out in the coming weeks. “The meteorology institute predicts an increase in cloud-cover beginning this week and we are planning cloud-seeding bombardment as this develops,” he said. “The institute says clouds will thicken first over the Amazon then move westward into the intermountain valley during the first weeks in October.” He said cloud seeding would be conducted first in the Quito and Cuenca areas.

Asked why seeding was not conducted earlier, he said conditions did not allow it. “First, you need clouds and then they must be the kind of clouds that can produce rain. Second, humidity levels were too low to generate the moisture necessary for rain,” he said. “Now, as we approach October, conditions are changing.”