A customer is shopping in a clothes shop where the electricity has been cut as a result of rationing earlier this week. Photo: Dolores Ochoa / AP / NTB
Of NTB | 20.04.2024 02:13:01
Economy and business: The TV network reports Ecuavisa. The measure was announced on Friday afternoon after the president had first declared a power crisis on Tuesday this week.
The state of emergency will last for 60 days from Friday 19 April and is intended to ensure continuity of the electricity supply at national level.
Ecuador is affected by a drought, which affects electricity production at the country’s hydropower plants. Hydropower is the country’s most important source of energy.
The authorities announced on Tuesday the rationing of electricity and the import of electricity from neighboring Colombia, but at the same time there were reports from Colombia that the country is stopping its electricity exports to Ecuador for the same reason. Colombia itself is highly dependent on hydropower for electricity production, and the degree of filling in the plants has fallen to close to critical levels.
It is the natural climate phenomenon El Niño that is highlighted as the cause of the ongoing drought in the two South American countries.
(© NTB)