Acting Minister of Energy and Mines EcuadorInes Manzano reported this Saturday that power outages of up to 10 hours a day will continue next week, at different time intervals, in a country that is experiencing a serious energy crisis due to drought, among other reasons.

Power outages began on September 18. duration 8 hours per day. A few weeks later, power outages occurred at different times across the regions.

In a post on social networks, Ines Manzano said that this Saturday “most hydroelectric power plants” were in “optimal operation, and in relation to the Masar Dam, in the Paute complex, water supply increased by 70 centimeters from Thursday until yesterday evening.”

“In this situation,” he noted, “we must maintain the cuts and be responsible. Next week will be critical and weather conditions In the southern part of the country, where the main hydroelectric power stations are located, there is little rain.

And he indicated that the power outages, which will continue from October 14 to 20, will not exceed the current 10 hours a day.

“We know the efforts of each of them and the inconvenience that the drought crisis is causing, so our commitment is that they have a schedule today to can plan their activities. In this environment, we are going to emerge from this crisis, and while we are facing it, we are taking all the actions that have not been taken before to be able to diversify the way we produce energy,” he said.

Another 160 megawatts

Ecuador announced this Saturday that it has started two new processes for inclusion of another 160 megawatts thermal data into the National Interconnected System (SNI).

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Public company Corporación Eléctrica de Ecuador (CELEC) said in a statement that the first process is intended to acquisition, installation, commissioning and launch 120 MW land-based generating plants in Duran, coastal Guayas province.

It’s about new thermal power plant which will be located at the 14th kilometer of the Durán-Bolice highway, will run on HF04 fuel and its energy will be transmitted to SNI through the Durán substation.

The second process concerns the lease of an additional 40 megawatts for the Machala II power plant. There will be two power units of 20 MW each, twin, that is, they will run on diesel fuel or natural gas.

“The worst drought”

The government recently assured that the country facing the worst drought in 60 yearswhich affected electricity production at several hydroelectric power plants.

The government announced medium- and long-term measures to overcome the energy crisis, such as blooming power plant rental Turkish company Karpowership with a capacity of 100 megawatts, which has already been put into operation.

Ecuador’s electricity production matrix is ​​more than 70% dependent on hydroelectric power, especially Coca Codo Sinclair. largest hydroelectric power plant in the country with a capacity of 1,500 megawatts; and in the Mazar Reservoir, which powers a complex of three power plants on the Pauta River with a total capacity of more than 1,700 megawatts. (EFE)