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Ecuador’s Power Grid Gets a Massive Makeover
Over the past two decades, Ecuador has added a lot of hydroelectric power to its mix. Going forward, natural gas generation is expected to play more of a role in maintaining reliability and adding flexibility. As more intermittent renewable resources are incorporated, reactive power assets will also be important.
Step into your DeLorean, set the controls for the year 2002, fire it up to 88 mph, and head to Ecuador. The electric grid of that time would be unrecognizable compared to that of today. Back then, a meager 7.9 GW of capacity could only provide power to a tiny portion of the population. An investment of nearly $5 billion over the decade that followed brought total capacity to more than 20 GW, and enabled an increase in househol