Blackouts resume in Cuenca but are reduced to eight hours a day; Rain chances improve

Energy Minister Inés Manzano announced Sunday night that blackouts will be reduced to eight hours a day from Monday to Thursday. The reduction is due to the resumption of power transfers from Colombia despite the shutdown of three hydroelectric plants at the Paute-Mazar complex in Azuay and Cañar Provinces. Last week power suspensions were 12 hours a day.

The Toachi-Pilatón Hydroelectric facility on the border of Cotopaxi and Pichincha Provinces is undergoing testing before going online in December.

For most Cuenca residents, blackouts return following a week’s respite due to the Ibero-American Summit.

Manzano said there are “reasons for optimism” that conditions will improve coming weeks. “First, there are the power transfers from Colombia that could reach 440 megawatts this week,” she said. “Colombia has experienced heavy rainfall in recent weeks, which has refilled their hydroelectric reservoirs, and the rain is expected to continue. Second, rain is forecast for the inter-Andean valley of Ecuador this week, and this should increase the generation capacity at Coca Coda Sinclair and the Mazar plants.”

She said that the electric transfers from Colombia are provided by privately owned thermal power plants.

She also said that work is nearing completion on the Toachi-Pilatón Hydroelectric facility on the border of Cotopaxi and Pichincha Provinces. “The plant should be online by December 17 with a capacity of 204 megawatts,” she said. Construction on the plant was suspended in 2012 as a result of the Odebrecht scandal.

The blackout schedule for Azuay, Cañar and Morona Santiago Provinces is posted on the Centrosur website.