The president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, announced the end of the blackouts and promised that this will arrive in December 2024. Since September, the country has faced daily scheduled blackouts that in some cases have exceeded 12 hours a day. Currently, citizens have power outages of 8 non-consecutive hours.
“As we have promised, in December the blackouts will end and we will have a normal life again”Noboa stated in a recent speech proclaimed in Esmeraldas. In that intervention, Noboa highlighted that his administration has allocated USD 700 million to repair and maintain the country’s thermoelectric park, a measure that he considers key to overcoming the energy crisis.
According to the president, the thermoelectric plants have not received maintenance since 2020, which further complicated the state response to the drought affecting the country: “We have had to live through something very hard, a product of the forgetfulness of previous governments and corruption.“said Noboa, who referred to previous inaction as one of the factors that aggravated the crisis. However, sector experts have warned that short-term efforts, such as the repair of thermoelectric plants, will only be a palliative while long-term investments are not made to diversify the country’s energy sources.
The country relies heavily on its hydroelectric system, which supplies about 70% of the country’s energy. However, the prolonged drought associated with the El Niño phenomenon has significantly reduced generation capacity, forcing the government to resort to thermoelectric plants and energy imports from Colombia.
The dependence on hydroelectric energy exposes the country to climate vulnerabilities, a situation that several analysts have pointed out as a structural failure in energy planning in recent decades. Although Ecuador has significant potential to develop renewable sources such as solar and wind, these still represent a minimal fraction of its energy matrix.
This is not the first time that the Noboa government has made announcements of this type within the framework of this crisis. Previously, the president promised to gradually reduce the hours of the blackouts, but the lack of rain prevented that from happening. Later, in an interview in a government-run media, the president assured that he made that decision based on “empathy,” despite the fact that the technicians suggested prolonging the blackouts.
In addition to the energy crisis caused by the drought, the government must combat several active forest fires, mainly in the south of the country. Noboa has been described as “environmental terrorism” to the fires that affect the provinces of Cuenca y Store. During an event in the canton Sucre, Manabiheld on November 20, the president pointed out that the fires could be politically motivated.
“They tried it in Quito, now they are going to Cuenca and Loja”said Noboa, referring to the fires recorded in the capital in September. According to the president, certain groups seek to destabilize the country through acts of this nature. Noboa indicated this after the declaration of a national emergency due to the fires, which have devastated more than 10,000 hectares in Loja and Azuay, both provinces in the south of the country and whose ecological reserves have been affected by the fires. The National Government has intensified coordination and assistance actions, calling extraordinary sessions of the Sectoral Cabinet in Loja and Cuenca to evaluate and mitigate the impacts of this environmental emergency.
The climatic conditions, produced by high temperatures and prolonged droughthave facilitated the spread of fires that have consumed thousands of hectares nationwide. In total, more than 3,100 fires have been recorded so far this year.
