What happened

A severe drought across southern Ecuador — described as the worst in 60 years and compounded by the 2023–2024 El Niño event — sharply depleted water levels at the Paute Integral hydroelectric complex and other reservoirs supplying the bulk of the country's electricity. On 24 September 2024 several major units at the Paute complex were forced offline, and national electricity demand had grown roughly 24% (about 400 MW) since the country's last significant generation-capacity addition, while only around 880 MW of Ecuador's roughly 2 GW of installed thermal capacity remained operational. The resulting shortfall forced nationwide rolling blackouts that reached up to 14 hours a day at their peak in October and November 2024, disrupting businesses, hospitals and daily life nationwide and contributing to an estimated $2 billion in economic losses. Increased reliance on diesel backup generation significantly worsened air quality in Quito, with sulfur dioxide levels reported at roughly 180% above WHO guidance during the crisis. President Daniel Noboa's government came under sustained criticism, replaced three energy ministers during the crisis (including Andrea Arrobo, who faced unproven sabotage accusations that were not substantiated in reporting), and announced on 10 December 2024 that scheduled outages would end by 20 December. This is documented as a climate/infrastructure-capacity crisis, not an attack.

When cited sources give different casualty, damage or spill figures for this event, they’re reported side by side above rather than merged into one number. See how confidence levels work.