Transmission line causes Ecuador power outage
The country’s 18 million inhabitants were left briefly in the dark as the outage struck the country.
Image for illustration purposes.
Ecuador, Quito: Ecuador suffered a nationwide power outage on Wednesday afternoon. The public works minister blamed lacking investment in recent years and said, “today we are experiencing the consequences”. The country’s 18 million inhabitants were left briefly in the dark as the outage struck the country, halting the metro underground system in Quito and affecting traffic lights and other road signals.
“Due to a general failure of the national interconnected electrical energy system, the operation of the Quito Metro is interrupted while the systems are restarted and verified,” the metro system posted on X (Twitter). Meanwhile, Public Works Minister Roberto Luque announced a power transmission line failure was the cause of the outage, as at 3:17 p.m. there was a failure of the Milagro-Zhoray Transmission Line. Power started being gradually restored in Quito within around an hour of the failure, and as of 6:40 p.m. that evening 95% of national energy output was back online.
Luque called the blackout a reflection of the energy crisis the country is experiencing. He added that the lack of investment in power generation was why President Daniel Noboa declared an energy emergency and limits to usage in April. He went on to say that failure to invest adequately in transmission and infrastructure explained Wednesday’s failure.
Source: Deutche Welle