No electric blackouts are planned but rain is desperately needed to replenish reservoirs

There are no plans for nationwide electric blackouts despite low water levels at the Mazar generation plant in Azuay Province. “We are carefully managing our power supply to avoid a new round of rationing,” Energy Minister Andrea Arrobo said Friday. She added that the weather forecast calls for seasonal rains to resume within a week to ten days, replenishing the reservoir.

Arrobo said reservoir levels are low at the country’s other generation plants but the situation at Mazar is the most extreme.

The Mazar hydroelectric facilities east of Cuenca are operating at only 35% of capacity due to low reservoir water levels.

Earlier in the week, the Energy Ministry announced that transfers of electricity from Colombia are being reduced due to continuing drought conditions in that country.

On Friday, the Mazar hydroelectric plant was operating at 35% of its designed capacity, generating 60 megawatts compared to 170 under optimum conditions. “The water level at the reservoir that powers the Mazar facilities has shown a sharp drop in the past three weeks due to lack of rainfall,” says energy consultant Ricardo Buitrón. “This means that only one of the two turbines at the plant is operating.”

Buitrón says that the rainy season is late arriving and that the Paute River, which feeds the Mazar reservoir, is running at historically low level for this time of year. “In most years, we expect increased rainfall beginning in late March but this has not been the case and the dry weather has continued into April. Southern Ecuador, from Cuenca to Loja, has experienced one of its driest 12-month periods in memory, probably as a result of El Niño.”

Arrobo says dry conditions are being experienced throughout northwestern South America. “Colombia and Peru are in similar conditions, but it is our expectation, as the El Niño system fades, we will return to normal weather patterns. The electric outages experienced in recent weeks in parts of the country will probably continue but these are not scheduled and cannot be predicted,” Arrobo says. “We are working hard to balance the power grid to avoid interruptions.”