Thursday power outages are a reminder that the Coca Codo Sinclair hydro plant is in trouble
Thursday’s power blackouts in nine provinces, including Azuay, are a reminder of technical and erosion problems at the Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric plant on the Rio Coca east of Quito. A representative for the national electric company, Celec, said the outages were temporary, the result of a collapsed dam downstream of the plant.
The Coca Coda Sinclair hydro plant
About 20% of Cuenca residents suffered blackouts of two to three hours.
According to Celec, Coca Codo Sinclair was shut down for several hours as a precautionary measure to assess the impact of the dam failure. “Power generation was resumed after technicians confirmed there was no impact on generation operations,” Celec reported. “The dam failure was the result high river flow due to heavy rainfall.”
Coca Codo has been plagued by problems since it began operations in 2016. Thousands of cracks in steel equipment, including the generation turbines, required the reduction of power production while high levels of sedimentation at the water intake pools have required frequent plant shut-downs for cleaning. Even with reduced capacity and shutdowns, the plant produces more than 30% of Ecuador’s electricity.
Another major concern is erosion of the riverbanks on the Rio Coca that is rapidly advancing toward Coca Codo. According to a special commission that monitors river conditions for Celec, “significant erosion” has advanced to within 3.6 kilometers of the plant. Six years ago, the erosion was more than 20 kilometers downstream. Government officials and energy experts agree that if the erosion reaches the Coca Codo catchment facilities the plant will cease operations.
Construction of the dam that collapsed Thursday was completed in April to stop or slow the erosion. It functioned for only 38 days.
Former Energy Minister Carlos Perez says he has been “ringing alarm bells” for years about the condition of Coca Codo. “The government is declaring states of emergency every month or two for crime and security, but they are ignoring the energy crisis and the situation on the Rio Coca,” he says. He adds that Coca Codo “probably cannot be saved,” and that large-scale generation plants must be built to replace it. He and other experts believe the plant is within six or seven years of ending operations.
In August 2024, weeks before the country imposed power blackouts, President Daniel Noboa called Perez an “alarmist” for warning of an impending electricity shortage.
