Ecuador’s President Guillermo Lasso reported that he would meet his Colombian counterpart Gustavo Petro on Saturday in Bogotá to seek help to address the energy crisis in the country, where he launched an electricity rationing program lasting up to four hours on Thursday.
“Tomorrow morning I will travel to Bogotá to speak with President @petrogustavo and ask for his support in resolving Ecuador’s energy crisis,” Lasso wrote on his X account, formerly called Twitter.
The day before, Quito announced power outages of up to four hours a day across the country as the drought has caused the flow of tributaries that feed hydroelectric plants to decline. According to authorities, the country is experiencing the worst dry season in the last 50 years.
The implementation of the measure began this Thursday and sparked complaints from the manufacturing sector. The Quito Chamber of Commerce and the Chamber of Industry and Production estimated that “for every hour without electricity, the commercial sector would lose $18 million.”
The chamber regretted that “this abrupt power interruption” occurs in the last quarter of the year, when there is a larger sales volume.
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Lasso added that Ecuador “sold electricity to Colombia to cover the supply of its internal needs” because he assumed that “this time there will be reciprocity” with his country.
Rationing could be extended until December while the country buys energy.
The cuts will take place in a time slot between 7:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. local time (12:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. GMT). At night, service will not be suspended due to the violent conditions in the country, warned Energy Minister Fernando Santos.
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Ecuador, with a population of 16.9 million, declared a power sector emergency last week after Colombia restricted energy sales to the country.
Low flows in tributaries in the Amazon, where most of the hydroelectric power plants are located, and a delay in the start of the rainy season due to the impact of the El Niño phenomenon have affected Ecuador’s electricity sector.
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