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Juan Carlos Blum is now the fifth person to lead Ecuador's energy portfolio since November 2023. A former minister calls it 'a responsibility of the highest risk.' The blackouts, failed contracts, and investigations explain why.
Ecuador's Attorney General is seeking to formally charge 21 people — including a former Celec manager and former Energy Minister — with embezzlement tied to emergency contracts during the 2024 blackout crisis. Estimated damages exceed $100 million.
Prosecutors raided CNEL offices across three provinces after the Energy Minister revealed a decade-long billing manipulation scheme affecting 400,000+ accounts. Officials allegedly cut invoices by 80% in exchange for bribes.
Coastal residents report electricity bills climbing from $80 to $155, $126 to $400, and $130 to $280 in a single cycle. President Noboa announced a subsidy covering up to 180 kWh per household in heat-affected zones, worth roughly $20 per bill, appearing on May statements.
Ecuador's strategic Mazar reservoir is sitting at ~2,137 m.s.n.m. — about 61% of stored energy capacity, and 23–28 meters above the same period in 2024. Energy Minister Inés Manzano declared "tenemos agua." Hydroelectric is currently delivering 72.3% of national output. Here's the supply-side picture as the heat wave continues.
Peak demand on the Ecuadorian electrical grid hit 5,333 MW on April 10 — roughly 20% above normal, and enough to trigger rolling blackouts across Guayaquil, Daule, and Samborondón. The Ministry of Environment and Energy suspended all scheduled grid maintenance on April 14 to free up capacity. Here's what's happening and what to expect.
Environment and Energy Minister Inés Manzano announced leadership changes at both CNEL (the national distribution utility) and CENACE (the grid operator) this week after widespread blackouts and what she called 'slow and inefficient' responses. Juan Carlos Blum — a mechanical engineer with a background in multilateral energy work — is the new CNEL general manager.
Ecuador's Ministry of Environment and Energy publicly labeled a circulating WhatsApp schedule of purported Guayas power cuts as "Falso." The fake document listed outages across Guayaquil, Samborondón, Machala, Daule, and Quito. The real, limited maintenance cuts are confined to two upcoming Sundays at the Dos Cerritos substation.
Ecuador's Minister of Environment and Energy, Inés Manzano, confirmed scheduled power interruptions in Guayas province on two additional Sundays, running from 5:00 AM to 8:00 AM, for maintenance work at the Dos Cerritos substation. Affected areas include Guayaquil, Samborondón, Santa Lucía, Pedro Carbo, and Daule.
In the Ietel neighborhood of north Guayaquil, residents have been without electricity for more than 15 hours since Sunday afternoon. Some families have resorted to sleeping inside their cars with the AC running. The heat wave turned a utility failure into a survival problem.
Power outages rippled through neighborhoods across Guayaquil, Daule, and Samborondón on April 12, with CNEL blaming transformer overloads from extreme AC demand during the heat wave. Residents are reporting four-hour outages or longer.
The National Electoral Council unanimously approved the start of the electoral period on February 14, setting the stage for mayoral, prefect, and council elections on February 14, 2027. Campaign season officially begins in January 2027.
