Blackouts in Ecuador Due to Lower Energy Imports from Colombia

Ecuador is suffering blackouts due to the restriction of energy sales from Colombia. Since last Sunday, April 14, blackouts have returned to Ecuadorian cities and towns, which have been facing a major energy crisis for months. During the most acute phase of the El Niño phenomenon, between June and October last year, even the capital, Quito, suffered prolonged blackouts. However, increased energy sales from Colombia greatly alleviated the situation.

Although by the end of 2023, the Colombian government had committed to further increasing energy sales to the neighboring country, the drought, and Colombia’s energy crisis have forced it to restrict these sales. The Colombian Ministry of Mines established that the country will reduce the sale of megawatts to Ecuador until July 31, 2024.

Blackouts of up to five hours in Ecuador return

Only two days after Colombia’s decision, last Sunday blackouts returned to Ecuador. According to the rationing schedule, some sectors of the country will be without electricity for up to five hours a day.

The situation is more serious than last year, since these blackouts also affect companies during working hours, and even occur in the early morning hours, with the consequent impact on public order and security that may result. It should be recalled, in this regard, that the country has been under the declaration of “internal armed conflict” since January.

Only last Friday, April 12, the Minister of Energy, Andrea Arrobo, ruled out the return of these episodes of service outages, which Ecuador already suffered in mid-2023 due to the drought. President Noboa has consequently asked for the resignation of the head of the Ministry.

Roberto Luque, who acts as an acting minister, affirmed that the current crisis “is the result of several factors: administrative, climatic, planning and historical corruption.”.

The situation is serious and the minister wanted to be clear on this: “There will be no easy solutions in the short term”, he said in an address to the Ecuadorian people. The government has declared “a state of emergency” in the energy sector, to be able to contract energy in an extraordinary way from third parties.

The government recognizes the energy deficit and explains that it is due to the very low levels of water flow in the power plants. “The extension of the drought, the increase in climatic temperatures, the lack of maintenance on the entire infrastructure of the electric system in previous years; and the presence of historically minimum flow levels, have caused the activation of all available generation plants,” reads the official statement.

Ecuadorian government recommendations: turn off the lights

The Ecuadorian government has made a call to the population to reduce electricity consumption. With the clear slogan of “turn off the light”, the government of Daniel Noboa asks that the national electric demand be moderated, to avoid more prolonged blackouts.

Among the requests of Noboa’s government, there is “a civic call to all Ecuadorians to support the efforts to reduce energy consumption in this critical week, considering that every drop of water and every kilowatt not consumed count to face this situation”.

Criticism from the political opposition has not been long in coming, since in January, President Noboa had assured the public that there would be no more power outages in the country. However, before resigning, the Ecuadorian Minister of Energy explained that “the supply of electric energy from Colombia has dropped. It has already reduced exports since last month. Colombia is in a critical situation. We are talking about a systemic problem due to climate change that is hitting us throughout the region. It is hitting us harder because of the lack of investment in the electricity sector”.

Colombia faces an energy crisis

A week ago, the Colombian Ministry of Mines and Energy issued a resolution establishing the reduction of exports to Ecuador. Colombia has traditionally been an important supplier of energy to the neighboring country. It exports around 400 megawatts per hour, but the emergency in the country has forced drastic reductions.

For his part, the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, has regretted the situation in Ecuador, but has defended his obligation to give priority to his emergency, since the threat of power cuts in Colombia is a reality if it does not rain in the coming weeks.

“I am very sorry that for the Ecuadorian people electricity rationing has begun in their country. My commitment with President Lasso was to provide the service as long as the same electrical stability of Colombia was not endangered”, wrote the Colombian head of state in his social networks, regarding the agreement he signed with former Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso.