A failure in the energy transmission system that occurred this Wednesday afternoon in Ecuador has left almost the entire country without electricity, according to the acting Minister of Energy, Roberto Luque.
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The Secretary of State indicated in his X network account that The National Electricity Operator (Cenace) reported the failure and that every effort is being made to try to recover the electricity as soon as possible.
“The immediate report that we received from Cenace (the organization in charge of operational control of the electrical system in that country) is that There is a failure in the transmission line that caused a cascade disconnection, so there is no energy service on a national scale.“wrote the minister in a brief message.
“We are concentrating all our efforts on solving the problem as quickly as possible,” he added.
Businesses without electricity in Ecuador in the midst of the energy crisis.
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What regions were affected?
For its part, a source close to the electricity operators told EFE that Cenace has offered to respond to the sudden massive power outage in the next few minutes.
According to online media, the “massive blackout” has affected several regions of the country and the lack of electricity has been confirmed in cities such as Quito, Guayaquil, Cuenca and Manta, among others.
The mayor of Quito, Pabel Muñoz, pointed out in
“I have ordered the activation of all the reaction teams of the Municipality of Quito so that they join in facilitating mobility, preventing accidents at the main intersections and taking care of public spaces,” he added.
In the port of Guayaquil (southwest of the country and second city in Ecuador), the drinking water company called on the population to “take measures and stock up,” while the tram in the Andean city of Cuenca also had to suspend service.
The surprise massive power outage occurred two days after the Government declared the possibility of blackoutsas had been announced on Monday, after the Coca-Codo-Sinclair hydroelectric plant, the most important generator in the country, came out of operation.
The system’s withdrawal of that plant was due to the danger that it could suffer damage due to the increase in the amount of sediment in the flows of the rivers that feed it, due to the intense rains.
Minister Luque then assured that In principle, sedimentation accumulation problems had caused the plant to stop operating, but he said that a so-called “compensating reservoir” had been used to get it back into operation.
In addition, the minister had warned that there was a similar danger in the Agoyán and San Francisco hydroelectric plants, also due to the effects of the intense rains, which is why the country had stopped generating 2,145 megawatts of energy.
Ecuador suffered scheduled blackouts of up to 13 hours last April due to a prolonged drought that reduced reservoirs to a minimum. The cuts ended in May with the return of the rains.
Dark streets in the middle of blackouts in Ecuador.
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New power cuts due to the risk of damage to the hydroelectric plant
This blackout occurs two days after the Government of Ecuador announced the scheduling of electrical outages due to the end of operation of the Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric plant, given the danger that it may suffer damage due to the increase in the amount of sediment in the flows of the rivers that feed it, due to the rains that have fallen in recent days.
“At the moment the Coca Codo Sinclaire plant has an amount of sediment above a thousand parts per million, which has forced the stoppage of the operation of this hydroelectric plant,” said the Ministry of Energy and Mines in a statement.
In addition, that ministry, without giving more details, indicated that the National Electricity Operator (Cenace) has requested the electricity distribution companies of the regions and cities “to plan schedules and sectors that will be affected by the suspension of the electricity service.” electrical energy on this day” Monday.
The Ministry asked citizens to consult the blackout calendar through the web portals of each of the energy distribution companies, which have already announced that the cuts will last two hours in specific sectors.
The announcement of electricity cuts for this Monday came a day after the acting Minister of Energy and Mines, Roberto Luque, ruled out the possibility of blackouts after announcing the recovery of operation at the Coca Codo Sinclair plant, which the Sunday it temporarily went out of operation due to having been hit by an increase in the flow of the river that feeds it.
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