Latest news Massive blackout: millions of Ecuadorians without electricity

SDA

20.6.2024 - 04:09

People walk in front of a subway station after the entire country was affected by a power outage. Millions of Ecuadorians have been cut off from their power supply in a nationwide blackout. Photo: Dolores Ochoa/AP/dpa
People walk in front of a subway station after the entire country was affected by a power outage. Millions of Ecuadorians have been cut off from their power supply in a nationwide blackout. Photo: Dolores Ochoa/AP/dpa
Keystone

Millions of Ecuadorians have been cut off from their power supply in a nationwide blackout. "It was a chain reaction. When certain power plants failed, there was a "black out" effect: the demand for energy was suddenly greater than the supply, which led to the collapse of the national power grid," said Energy Minister Roberto Luque on Wednesday. After a few hours, around 60 percent of households in the South American country had power again.

"The incident shows that the Ecuadorian energy system is in crisis. It was caused by a lack of investment in the maintenance and construction of power lines," said Minister Luque. "The energy crisis has several aspects: In April there were problems with generation, now there are problems with transmission."

In April, the Ecuadorian government declared a state of emergency due to power shortages. In order to ration energy, the power was switched off for several hours in different regions of the country. Historic lows were recorded in the region's reservoirs due to a severe drought. Ecuador generates 78 percent of its electricity from hydropower.