:quality(85)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/infobae/F3T6JZZXQNHNDG6Y3ZBWADB7W4.jpg "Power Outages in Ecuador: Drought, Hydroelectric Crisis, and Government Controversy")
2024-04-18 21:47:00
Ecuador lives this Thursday with power outages of up to 13 hoursa measure caused by the reduction of the hydroelectric power generated due to the drought and which led the Government to request, without much success, that working days be suspended.
Reservoirs register alarming storage levels on the eve of a binding referendum on the measures proposed by the president Daniel Noboa to try to stop the growing violence linked to drug trafficking.
The movement in the large urban transport stations of Quito was the usual, despite the Government’s request. The buses left for various points in the capital, avoiding the lack of traffic lights in some sectors, where the electrical service had been suspended since 07:00 local time (12:00 GMT).
The outages began on Sunday without warning, for shorter periods, but have become longer as the days have passed.
“Yesterday they took away from me from eight to eleven (in the morning) and that is the time it takes to work. “Today with eight hours (of suspension) it is going to be worse, it affects us a lot,” he told the agency. AFP Second Guacho.
The 45-year-old man owns a computer rental business in the center of Quito and maintains that In three days it has lost nearly $200 in income due to the interruption of service.
The Executive suspended the working day in the public and private sectors these Thursdays and Fridaysas well as the classes, following announcing that the Mazar (the most important) and Paute reservoirs, both in the southern Andes, are in “critical conditions” by registering storage levels of 0% and 4%, respectively.
The flow in the largest hydroelectric plant, Coca Codo Sinclair (northern Amazon), with the capacity to generate 1,500 MW of power to cover 30% of national demand, is 60% of the historical average.
The Secretary of Communication of the Presidency of Ecuador, Roberto Izurietaassured this Thursday that there are suspicions that the Mazar reservoir, the largest capacity in the country, was allegedly deliberately emptied to exacerbate the energy crisis in the days prior to the referendum called by the Government on reforms in security, justice and employment.
Izurieta commented in an interview with the Teleamazonas channel that “the floodgates” of the Mazar reservoir dam were opened and “they let the water flow,” until they left it without sufficient level for a complex of three hydroelectric plants to be operated with one overall power of more 1,700 megawatts, approximately more than a quarter of the national electricity demand.
The reservoir is located on the Paute River, within the southern Andean province of Azuay, and can store up to 410 million cubic meters of water.
Without this operational infrastructure and with the supply of electricity from Colombia also suspended, Ecuador faces scheduled blackouts this Thursday lasting up to eight hours, which is why the Government has suspended the working day and school classes for both this Thursday and Friday.
The situation is not new, since at the end of last year Blackouts already had to be applied to ration electricity with a daily duration of up to four hours, half that of this new episode.
Izurieta indicated that these suspicions regarding the Mazar reservoir, located in the southern Andean province of Azuay, fuel the complaint filed on Tuesday by the Ecuadorian Executive once morest twenty-two people for alleged sabotage of the electricity sector.
Among those reported is the former Minister of Energy and Mines Andrea Arrobo, who last Friday assured that there would be no short-term blackouts, something that began to occur without prior notice two days later in several areas of the country.
“There are extremely serious complaints regarding what happened in recent days. The alert was given only one day before, when it should have been given at least a week before,” said Izurieta.
“If we add to that everything that affected the electricity sector, it makes us think clearly that they were part of coordinated actions to cause Ecuador to be experiencing what it is experiencing a week before the (referendum) vote,” he added.
The Government spokesperson commented that ““The energy area is where the greatest number of corruption complaints have historically existed (in Ecuador).”
“We have had an energy policy in the last twenty years that has not adapted to climate crises and we have depended on a single water basin that is affected at least once a year, and now we see that up to two times,” he noted.
Izurieta assured that no blackouts are planned for Sunday, when the referendum promoted by the Executive must be held with eleven questions, among which stands out the permanent support of the Armed Forces to the Police in operations once morest organized crime, without the need for declare states of exception.
Likewise, other relevant issues of this plebiscite refer to allowing the extraditions of Ecuadorians required by the Justice of other countries, establishing courts in constitutional matters, recognizing international arbitrations in any jurisdiction and making labor contracts more flexible with hourly contracts.
Noboa declared an emergency in the electricity sector on Tuesday and asked for the resignation of the then Minister of Energy, Andrea Arrobo, following untimely rationing that began on Sunday.
He also denounced a “sabotage” in the electrical area as one of the causes of outages, as well as the effects of global warming.
Citizens complained this Thursday regarding the disorganization in the outages, since the schedules established by the electricity companies are not met and there have been unforeseen suspensions.
Segundo Guacho says to the AFP that he is worried and his plan, in case the emergency spreads, is to seek a loan to buy an electric generator that will allow him to continue with his business.
Added to the water problem in Ecuador was that Colombia stopped selling energy as a measure to deal with the serious drought associated with the El Niño phenomenon, which has Colombian reservoirs below 30% of their capacity.
(With information from EFE and AFP)
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