Unannounced Power Outages and Longer Industrial Disconnections: How to Keep Your SME's Systems Online
Between Tuesday night, October 13, and the early hours of this Wednesday, October 14, 2026, users in Quito, Guayaquil and other cities reported unscheduled power outages, as El Comercio and Primicias reported. By Wednesday morning, the Ministry of Environment and Energy had not explained the cause. It comes in the middle of the dry season and in the same week the Government expanded scheduled disconnections for industry.
If your company is an office, a shop or a small workshop, it is most likely not on those schedules. But an unannounced outage still shuts down the server, the router and the cameras. Here is what is known and what to prepare.
What Was Announced for Industry
Early in the month, high- and medium-voltage companies started receiving schedules for 48-hour outages (we explained how to prepare). On October 8, the Ministry of Environment and Energy announced that starting Monday the 12th, disconnections for large consumers would go from 48 to 72 hours a week, according to Primicias and Vistazo:
- Who it applies to: High Voltage 1 users (185 companies) and industrial medium-voltage users (around 8,900).
- Why: according to the Ministry, to preserve energy reserves and guarantee supply to households.
- Own generation: only 47 of the 185 High Voltage 1 companies can cover all their consumption with self-generation.
This Wednesday, an official notice also circulated extending the industrial disconnection to seven days in a row, from October 14 to 20. The Secretary General of Public Administration, José Julio Neira, called it erroneous and the official responsible was dismissed, according to Vistazo and El Comercio. The schedule that remains for this week: High Voltage 1 users get service back from 00:00 on Thursday the 15th, and industrial medium-voltage users stay disconnected until 24:00 on Friday the 16th.
What It Means for an SME
Scheduled disconnections have a timetable; outages like this week's do not. For an office or a shop, the practical risks are these:
- Damaged data: a server, NAS or computer that shuts down abruptly can corrupt open files and databases, such as your accounting system's.
- No internet even with power: if the outage hits your provider's equipment, your connection drops even if you have a generator.
- Blind cameras: video surveillance without backup power stops recording just when darkness raises the risk.
- Damaged equipment: voltage swings when power returns affect power supplies, switches and disks.
What to Prepare This Week
- List what is critical. Define what must keep running during an outage: invoicing, card payments, internet, cameras, phone system. The rest can wait.
- A UPS for what is critical, not for everything. A UPS gives you minutes to shut down in order, not hours. Connect the router, switch, server or NAS and the camera recorder; check the batteries' condition and test it by unplugging it.
- Automatic shutdown. Set up the server or NAS to shut itself down when the UPS signals it is running out of battery.
- A second connection. Keep a link from another provider or a mobile data plan you can share from a phone, and test that your point of sale and invoicing work with it.
- Off-site backups. Apply the 3-2-1 rule (three copies, on two media, one outside the office) and check that the backup can be restored.
- If you use a generator, connect the equipment through the UPS, not directly, so the switchover does not shut it down.
- Check your rate. If your company has an industrial medium-voltage meter, confirm with your utility whether you are on the schedule.
Moving what now lives on an office server (email, files, accounting system) to the cloud reduces what depends on your power outlet: with a charged laptop and mobile data, your team keeps working from wherever there is power.
How We Approach It at SimCodec
At SimCodec we help SMEs in Quito and across Ecuador keep operating when the power goes out: we size UPS units for critical equipment, set up automatic server shutdown, install backup internet links, put cameras on backup power and move to the cloud the systems that don't need to be in the office.
If you want to know what shuts down at your company during an outage and what it costs to avoid it, write to us or call our AI assistant Cyntia at +593 99 726 6838.
