Ecuador’s government has announced that due to a once-in-60-year drought causing water levels to drop at hydroelectric power plants, electricity services will be temporarily suspended in 12 out of the country’s 24 provinces on Sunday (September 22nd). Additionally, red alerts have been issued for 19 regions.
According to a statement released by the Ecuadorian presidential palace on Saturday evening (September 21st) on X platform, the power outage in these provinces will last from 8:00 in the morning until 5:00 in the afternoon local time on Sunday, lasting for 9 hours. This decision follows a plan announced by the government on Tuesday (September 17th) to implement 8-hour power cuts nationwide from Monday to Thursday.
Reported by Reuters, Ecuador is facing its most severe drought in 61 years. The government attributes the deepening energy crisis to a lack of maintenance on existing dams and securing contracts for new energy generation.
Ecuadorian authorities state that the additional power interruption on Sunday is based on considerations to “protect water resources.”
The decision to enact these measures was made following a meeting of the Ecuadorian Emergency Operations Committee on Saturday night.
Ecuador’s Minister of Environment, Ines Manzano, stated to reporters in Cuenca on Saturday, “We are facing water shortages, fires, and food security issues in 19 provinces.” She emphasized that “relevant institutions must accept and abide by the decision to declare the red alert.”
After the government announced the planned power cuts, the military entered the Mazar hydroelectric power plant to support its operations and protect the station. With an approximately 170-megawatt power generation capacity, this plant is considered critical to the country’s power supply due to its significant storage capacity.
Faced with this crisis, the Ecuadorian government has initiated artificial rain operations and installed power-generating barges to alleviate the situation. However, over 1,330 forest fires in the past month have exacerbated the effects of the drought, extending beyond the scope of power generation, with some cities experiencing reduced drinking water supplies.
On June 19th, Ecuador experienced a nationwide blackout incident, leaving around 18 million people in darkness. At that time, the Minister of Public Infrastructure of Ecuador, Roberto Luque, posted on social media platform X, “We received real-time reports from CENACE (National Energy Control Center) indicating that a fault occurred on the transmission lines, resulting in a cascading power failure, causing the nationwide blackout.”