Quito: Ecuador went into a nationwide blackout on Wednesday. At about 3.15 pm, most Ecuadorians found themselves in darkness. By nightfall, the streets of Quito and Guayaquil were filled with the sound of car horns honking and drivers yelling because traffic lights stopped working and vehicles congested the roads of these cities. There are no public transportation systems or water supply companies that provide services for both biggest cities now. The mayor of Quito expressed surprise on X that it had taken down the city’s subway system which has an “independent” power supply.
The country’s Minister of Public Works Roberto Luque said on X that he had received from CENACE (the national electricity operator) a report concerning “transmission line failure leading to cascade disconnection hence no energy service across the country.” Power began to return to parts of Quito several hours later.
This South American nation with its population of 18 million people has been suffering from an energy crisis for some years now. Collapsing infrastructure, neglected maintenance work and imported energy dependence have all resulted in rolling blackout. Much of this comes from neighboring Colombia, which is itself grappling to cater for its own citizens’ power needs. A $2.25bn Chinese-built hydroelectric power plant was supposed to help but instead it became a headache-project due to various construction mistakes resulting into a dispute between officials and China firm among others.
