The Ecuadorian government said days earlier that production problems would cause power outages across the country, but on Wednesday it said a power line had failed, causing unexpected blackouts across the country.
Ecuador’s Energy Minister Roberto Luque said in a message posted on X (formerly Twitter) that the outage was reported by the country’s state-owned electricity company and caused a “cascading blackout” that left the entire country without power.
He added that efforts are on to resolve the issue and repair the faulty power lines as soon as possible.
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The power outage lasted for 20 minutes in some parts of the country, but media and social media users reported problems continued in most cities.
People walk outside a metro station after a power outage affected the entire country, in Quito, Ecuador’s capital, Wednesday, June 19, 2024. The outage lasted for 20 minutes in some parts of the country, but media and social media users reported the problem continued in most of the city. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)
Emilia Ceballos, a waitress at a restaurant north of the capital, Quito, said the power outage came as a surprise.
“I thought it was just this area, but when I went out I saw that a few stores had generators plugged in, but the majority of stores had no power,” she said. “The traffic lights weren’t working either.”
Quito city authorities announced that they had deployed traffic controllers to regulate traffic flow on the Xth. Quito Metro, which operates the city’s subway, announced that services had been halted due to the power outage.
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Ecuador has been facing a power crisis since last year, with rationing in place across the country. President Daniel Novoa’s government instituted rationing in major cities in April after an El Niño drought depleted reservoirs and limited output from hydroelectric plants, which produce about 75 percent of the country’s electricity.
