🚨El Niño Phenomenon Hits Ecuador’s Largest Hydroelectric Plant and Threatens to Worsen the Energy Crisis

💧 The ravages of the El Niño phenomenon are severely impacting the flow at the Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric plant—Ecuador’s largest—which fell to an average of 251.74 cubic meters per second between September 15 and 28, compared to 321.16 m³/s in the first half of the month, according to reports from the Ecuadorian Electric Corporation (Celec).

🌧️ The reduction of 69.42 m³/s was due to decreased rainfall on the eastern slope, in the Amazonian provinces of Napo and Sucumbíos, where the plant is located.

⚡ Energy Minister Juan Carlos Blum noted that the lower water availability “introduced another variable” to the country’s electricity generation deficit, given an early dry season that could intensify due to the El Niño phenomenon.