The meeting of the Crisis Staff, which assesses the state of power outages for the second half of January, was held on the morning of January 9, and the decision should be announced this Friday.

On January 5, the Ministry of Energy and Mining convened a meeting of the Commission, headed by the head of that state portfolio, Andrea Arrobo, to analyze the current state of the main hydropower reservoirs in order to determine the state of power outages for the second half of January.

Last December, it was announced that power cuts across the country had been suspended until January 15.

The planned electricity curtailment began on October 27, during the administration of former president Guillermo Lasso. They were suspended on several occasions, so on December 19 it was announced that there would be no shutdown until January 1, 2024, which was later extended until the 15th of this month.

At the Commission session, the assessment of the technical results of the maintenance of the Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric power plant, which was carried out from January 6 to 7, and which has now resumed its operation and thus the supply of electricity, is scheduled. into the country.

Energy production from hydropower plants reaches 89%

The Ministry of Energy and Mining reported on Monday, January 8, that the planned water intake maintenance works of the Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric plant were completed on Sunday. “Cleaning maneuvers were carried out in the catchment access channel and sediments were removed from the compensating reservoir, in order to ensure the operation of the plant,” says the State Portfolio.

The hydroelectric power plant produces 21,324 megawatt hours (MW/h) of energy, according to data from the Ministry of Energy.

Mazar Hydroelectric is close to maxing out and will replace Coca Codo’s maintenance input: when will it be decided if there will be a blackout?

The planned works at Coca Codo Sinclair were carried out with the coordination of the Two-Year Maintenance Plan and represented a reduction of 40 gigawatt hours (GWh/day), and it was supplied precisely from the Mazar plant.

According to the operational information of the national electricity operator Cenace in real time, Coca Codo Sinclair is one of the hydroelectric plants with the highest energy production with 24%, the first is Mazar with 26%.

While Coca Codo Sinclair was undergoing regular maintenance, the Mazar hydroelectric power plant was supplying it with electricity that was close to its maximum level. On January 5, according to the Ministry of Energy, the height of the Mazar dam recorded a figure of 2146 meters above sea level (msl) with a reserve of 72%, the maximum level of Mazar is 2153 meters above sea level.