Government increases power blackouts to 14 hours
In a late Thursday night social media video, Energy Minister Inés Manzano announced that effectively immediately power blackouts will be extended to 14 hours a day. The announcement is a dramatic reversal of last week’s plan, presented by President Daniel Noboa, to reduce blackouts to four hours in two weeks.
“We made this tough decision based on the difficult climate situation,” Manzano said, claiming “extreme conditions require an extreme response” to protect the national power grid. She made no mention of Noboa’s October 17 blackout reduction announcement.
“We are facing a dynamic and unprecedented crisis that forces us to adapt to changing scenarios,” she said. “This is why we have made the painful but responsible decision to modify the rationing plan, increasing power suspensions from 8 to 14 hours a day.” She said the decision was made following a meeting of the Advisory Committee on Electric Energy, attended by businessmen, industrialists and electrical engineers.
Manzano said low water levels at the Paute-Mazar reservoir, and the Coca Coda Sinclair hydroelectric facility are the result of the worst drought in the country’s history. “All of South America is facing an unprecedented drought and we have all seen the pictures of the dried-up Amazon River. Ecuador is not the only country applying energy cuts.”
She added: “Unfortunately, this is a circumstance that cannot be overcome quickly and we are paying the price of poor planning by previous governments,” she said.
Private energy experts say the government had no other option than increasing blackouts. “If we don’t take this action, we risk a system-wide electric grid collapse,” said Edgar Castro, past president of the national electrical engineers’ association. “The president’s announcement last week to reduce blackouts was absurd under the circumstances. He had the same information that the energy ministry had last night and yet, apparently for political reasons, he chose to ignore reality. You notice, of course, that it wasn’t Daniel Noboa making the midnight announcement and apologizing for his mistake. He asked the minister to deliver the bad news.”
The new blackout schedule for the Cuenca area is posted on the Centrosur website.
