The Minister of Energy in charge, Roberto Luque, held a press conference with other members of the Presidential Cabinet.
Minister Roberto Luque; the Secretary of the Administration, Arturo Félix, and the Minister of Government, Mónica Palencia, at a press conference. Quito, April 16, 2024.
“We have worked since the early hours of the morning with the Cabinet, CNEL, Celec, Cenace, to understand all the variables that affect this energy crisis“, said the Minister of Energy, Roberto Luque, on the afternoon of April 16, 2024.
According to Luque, the crisis is due to a series of factors: administrative, climate, planning and historical corruption issues. He warned that “there will be no easy solutions in the short term.”
However, he recalled some of the decisions announced by the President in the morning. Like the declaration, he via ministerial agreement, of an electrical emergency to face crises and mobilize resources.
Likewise, he said, “we have arranged the creation of a directory in the Energy Regulation and Control Agency, which has been dilating and has prevented the timely contracting of emerging energy.”
He also recalled Noboa’s offer to take a 50% discount on April electricity bills.
According to Luque, tonight, the Cabinet will meet in Carondelet to make new decisions to face this crisis, “which will be informed in a timely manner.”
“The problems are not technical”
The problems that have existed in the Ministry of Energy, and that caused the declaration of an electrical emergency, are not technical , anticipated the Secretary of Communication, Roberto Izurieta, without offering more details.
That is why Roberto Luque was appointed as Minister of Energy in charge, “he is a person of confidence to the President.” Izurieta added that “the problems are not technical (…) what is needed is a person with the capacity for technical management and the fight against corruption.”
Luque was appointed on April 16, 2024, replacing Andrea Arrobo , whom President Daniel Noboa asked to resign at an event in Guayaquil, following the announcement of the start of a new schedule of blackouts throughout the country.
Noboa anticipated that there will be no more five-hour outages in the country and announced the issuance of a decree to declare an emergency in the electricity sector . On April 16, electricity companies reduced the supply of electricity by 18% in response to the historic decrease in the level of the Mazar reservoir, the largest in the country.
In addition to Izurieta and Luque, they arrived at the Ministry of Energy; the Minister of Government, Mónica Palencia; the Secretary of the Administration, Arturo Félix, among other senior officials.
