Ecuador imposes overnight blackouts as drought reduces hydropower capacity

• 2 months ago (2024-09-24)
• David Flin

Hydropower 134 Latin America 81

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Ecuador’s government has imposed nationwide nighttime blackouts in a bid to conserve energy. This was caused by widespread drought conditions depriving the country of hydropower capacity.

Ecuador gets about 77 per cent of its electricity from hydropower.

Daniel Noboa, Ecuador’s Presidemt, announced the backouts on social media, saying there would be daily eight-hour power cuts from Monday until Thursday, lasting from 10 pm to 6 am. He said that the measure was due to “the worst drought in the last 61 years and in order to responsibly manage the control of our electrical system.”

The Government has also commissioned a Turkish power generation barge to supply additional electricity to the national grid. The ship began generating power last week.