BOGOTA (Reuters) – Ecuador will introduce power cuts for several hours a day until mid-December, the government said on Thursday, because of a strong drought that has hit production at its hydro-electric plants.
The country’s most extreme drought in the last five decades, which the government attributes to the El Nino phenomenon, has affected the eastern and southern regions where 90% of hydro-electric plants operate.
“We have to be honest with the country, generation is not enough to met demand,” Energy Minister Fernando Santos told journalists. “As a precaution against a collapse in power we have to make specific and temporary cuts.”
Cuts will last four hours per day in the Sierra and Amazon regions and three hours a day along the coast, he said. They will begin on Friday and each city’s power company will decide a schedule.
The country needs an additional 460 megawatts to meet demand, Santos said, which will be covered with purchases from electricity generation boats, among other sources. Imports of natural gas will generate an additional 100 megawatts from mid-December, authorities said.
Technical problems at hydro-electric plants have exacerbated the problems, Santos added.
(Reporting by Alexandra Valencia; Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by Sandra Maler)
