Ecuador evaluates buying electricity from private Colombian companies due to Petro’s refusal

The Minister of Energy and Mines of Ecuador, Inés María Manzano, assured this Tuesday that the Colombian government refused to sell them energy and, therefore, that they will explore buying electricity from private companies in the neighboring country, given the acute energy crisis that has led to rationing in the electricity supply of up to 14 hours a day.

Ecuador declared an emergency in the electricity sector a little over a month ago because it is going through one of the worst crises due to a drought that, according to authorities, is the most severe in the last 60 years. The generation deficit varies between 1,000 and 1,400 megawatts, which has caused power rationing of between 10 and 14 hours a day throughout the country.

“Unfortunately, the (Colombian) minister said that, although there is all the availability and political will on the part of the president of Colombia, they cannot sell the 18 million Ecuadorians who need energy, so we are looking at the private part,” he said. Manzano to Noticias Caracol.

Later, in a video broadcast from the Presidency, the minister pointed to the purchase of energy from private Colombian companies. Both countries, according to Manzano, will adjust their regulations to allow the sale of electricity from private companies to Ecuador. He added that on Wednesday, upon his arrival in Quito, he will give details of such progress.

AP consulted the Colombian Ministry of Energy about the denial of energy exports to Ecuador without obtaining an immediate response.

Rationing until December

Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa, in an interview on Sunday night, noted that rationing will not end until the beginning of December, or in the worst case, in the first days of next year.

The lack of rain in southern Ecuador affects the Mazar reservoir, which supplies an important hydroelectric complex that produces up to 50% of the energy consumed in the country.

The Colombian Minister of Energy, Andrés Camacho, held a meeting with his Ecuadorian counterpart on Monday and assured in X that Colombia ratified its “commitment to energy exchange, as long as conditions improve.”

On Tuesday, the Presidency of Colombia sent another statement confirming that there was a meeting between leaders in which energy cooperation was discussed, without giving more details.

Colombia ratified the temporary suspension of energy exports to Ecuador in a resolution issued on September 30 because its authorities considered that the country is still in a situation of energy risk due to uncertainty in climate predictions and low reservoir levels.

During the year, the Colombian government issued several resolutions to limit the sale of energy to its neighbors since it experienced the El Niño phenomenon last year, with high temperatures and little rainfall, leaving it at risk of electricity rationing.

Lives altered by blackouts

In Ecuador, daily life has been altered by extensive rationing.

In mid-October, the Noboa government already made an announcement that it could not fulfill, regarding the possible gradual reduction in power cuts. The most recent outages in Ecuador began in September and were up to six hours a day, which have been increasing until reaching 14 hours a day.

Last year, during the final stage of former President Guillermo Lasso’s term, the country also faced weeks of hourly power outages. Rationing was repeated in the first months of 2024.

Specialists assure that the true causes are the lack of investment and abandonment of the sector and that the energy crisis could be avoided with the maintenance of the thermal park and the creation of new electricity generation plants.

Ecuador’s energy generation matrix depends 78% on hydroelectric plants, which due to severe low water levels have operated in recent weeks well below normal levels or in some cases have had to stop due to lack of flow in the rivers.

In Colombia, although reservoir levels have been recorded below normal, electrical rationing has not been ordered.

In the country, hydroelectric plants generate 66% of the energy, thermoelectric plants – which run on fuel – 31% and renewable energy sources 3%.

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