Power was almost completely restored in Ecuador on Wednesday afternoon, after a national blackout affected residential users, hospitals and the capital’s metro system, a failure that authorities attributed to faulty transmission lines.
Public Works Minister Roberto Luque said in a post on social media platform X that 95% of service had been restored by late Wednesday afternoon.
The blackout left a nation of about 18 million people in the dark, with the minister also pointing to a lack of maintenance as a contributing factor.
“This issue that has occurred today is one more example of the energy crisis we are experiencing,” he said, recalling the recent problems caused by the insufficient electricity generationwhich has caused unscheduled service outages.
Luque, who is also acting energy minister, stressed that Wednesday’s blackout was due to a lack of investment in transmission that could have been avoided.
The minister had earlier in the day blamed a transmission line fault that caused “a cascading disconnection.”
In April, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa declared an energy emergency and announced scheduled power outages.
Wednesday’s blackout caused dangerous driving conditions for dozens of motorists as traffic lights stopped working. The operation of the Quito Metro was also interrupted for several hours.
As the South American country battled a drought affecting hydroelectric power generation, heavy rains over the weekend forced authorities to take three hydroelectric plants offline.
The weekend rains They caused a landslide, causing at least 17 deaths and dozens of injuries. The disaster also led Ecuador’s private OCP pipeline to suspend operations and declare force majeure.
The authorities plan to reach 100% of the electrical connection nationwide at approximately 10 pm (local time), while some areas in Guayaquil and other cities on the country’s coast are still without supply.
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