Power back in Ecuador after nationwide blackout, 95% of service restored | World News

Power was nearly fully restored in Ecuador on Wednesday afternoon, after a nationwide electricity outage struck residential users, hospitals as well as the capital’s subway system, a failure officials blamed on faulty transmission lines.

Commuters gather at the El Ejido metro station as trains stalled during a nationwide blackout, in Quito, Ecuador, June 19, 2024 Adrian R. Cordovilla/via REUTERS (Adrian R. Cordovilla via REUTERS)
Commuters gather at the El Ejido metro station as trains stalled during a nationwide blackout, in Quito, Ecuador, June 19, 2024 Adrian R. Cordovilla/via REUTERS (Adrian R. Cordovilla via REUTERS)

Public Works Minister Roberto Luque said in a post on X that 95% of service had been restored by late Wednesday afternoon.

Read more:Ecuador rights abuses under state of ‘armed conflict’: HRW

The outage left the nation of some 18 million in the dark, as the minister also singled out insufficient maintenance as a contributing factor.

“What happened today is just more proof of the energy crisis we’re dealing with,” he said, ticking off recent problems caused by insufficient power generation that has led to unscheduled service cuts.

Luque, who also serves as acting energy minister, stressed that Wednesday’s outage was due to a lack of investment in transmission that could have been avoided.

Read more: Fire at UP sub-station hits power in large parts of Delhi

Luque had earlier in the day pinned the blame on a transmission line failure that caused “a cascade disconnection.”

In April, Ecuadorean President Daniel Noboa declared an energy emergency and announced planned electricity cuts.

Wednesday’s outage caused dangerous driving conditions for scores of motorists, as traffic lights ceased working. Operations of Quito’s subway were also interrupted for several hours.

Read more: Ukraine introduces emergency blackouts after Russian strikes on power plants

While the South American country has struggled with a drought affecting hydro-electricity power generation, heavy rains over the weekend forced authorities to take three hydroelectric plants offline.

The weekend rains provoked a landslide that killed at least 17 people and left dozens injured. The disaster also prompted Ecuador’s private OCP oil pipeline to suspend operations and declare force majeure.

This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.

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