Last night, residents of Quito, Guayaquil and Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas reported on social media that they were in the dark.

The Ministry of Energy and Mines reported that there was a failure in the 500 kilowatt Chorrillos-Tisaleo transmission line, as a consequence of adverse weather conditions in the area, coupled by heavy rain.

“The Ministry of Energy and Mines, in coordination with the technical team of the Electric Corporation of Ecuador (CELEC EP), is working hard to restore the service in the shortest possible time,” the ministry stated on its X account.

Friday morning Prensa Latina confirmed the suspension of the service in the La Carolina sector, in the north of the capital, and there was a blackout in the southern city of Cuenca.

In the case of Quito, the Electric Company indicated that a failure occurred “during a voltage change project that caused the disconnection.”

Earlier, the Minister in charge of Energy and Mines of Ecuador, Inés Manzano, had hailed the end of power cuts in the residential sector after three months of rationing.

“We have complied,” said Manzano on her social networks in reference to the promise of the president, Daniel Noboa, to end power interruptions by December 20.

The end of the blackouts does not include seven large companies (two steel mills, two mining companies and three cement factories) and experts agree that the electrical emergency has not yet ended, because the country’s electricity demand has not yet been met.

Ecuador had been dealing with power cuts of up to 14 hours a day since September 23, amid the drought griping the country and continued demands to the President for the lack of timely measures to cope with the crisis.

The Minister of Economy and Finance of Ecuador, Juan Carlos Vega, estimated that the blackouts have caused losses from one and 1.5 percent of the Gross Domestic Product. ied/oda/avr