Celec Launches Six Thermal Generation Rental Contracts — 920 MW Targeted, Diesel Demand to Rise Sharply

The Procurement

Corporación Eléctrica del Ecuador (Celec) has launched six rental contracting processes and two acquisition processes for thermal generation capacity, per Primicias (source).

Rental Procurement (rental / arrendamiento)

Central	Capacity	Operational window
Jaramijó (Manabí)	15 MW	730 days (2 years)
Salitral (Guayas)	60 MW	730 days (2 years)
[Four additional rental processes — specifics not individually disclosed]	~remainder to 920 MW	730 days

Acquisition (compra)

Central	Capacity
Durán (Guayas)	120 MW
Esmeraldas IV	150 MW

Celec's Rationale

"Permite acceder de manera inmediata a generación termoeléctrica disponible en el mercado global."

And the contrast with organic procurement:

"Depender exclusivamente de procesos tradicionales...implica asumir plazos extendidos."

Rental contracts bypass long-lead-time construction and commissioning cycles, delivering megawatts within months rather than years.

Diesel Consumption Impact

This is where the fiscal arithmetic gets heavy:

Measure	Barrels/month	Barrels/year
Current diesel consumption (Jan-Feb 2026 avg)	196,904	~2,362,848
Required under new thermal fleet	319,321	~3,831,852
Incremental annual consumption	—	~3,920,000

The incremental 3.92 million barrels of diesel annually is effectively the operational cost of the additional thermal capacity. At current diesel reference prices, the direct fuel-only spend runs in the hundreds of millions USD annually — before fixed rental costs.

Track Record Caveats

Recent Celec thermal rental contracts have underperformed:

• Progen contract — failed to deliver as contracted
• ATM contract — only 10 MW operational against higher contracted capacity
• Colombia energy import negotiation — Colombia refused to sell energy to Ecuador

These failures are what drove the current push toward a larger, more diverse portfolio of rental providers.

Author & Byline

The reporting was bylined by Estefanía Celi of Primicias.

What to Watch

• Sercop (public procurement portal) contract awards — the six rental processes will be awarded through Sercop; award notices will identify the specific counterparties and contract values.
• Delivery timelines — Progen's failure to deliver and ATM's underperformance set a low baseline. Whether the new cohort executes to contracted capacity is the critical operational question.
• Diesel procurement — Petroecuador's ability to source and deliver 319K barrels monthly of incremental diesel against subsidy economics is non-trivial.
• Fiscal pass-through — diesel rental generation is among the most expensive electricity Ecuador can produce. Rate increases or continued subsidy burden are the two mechanisms for absorbing the cost.
• Environmental permits — diesel thermal generation faces increasing environmental scrutiny; any MAE licensing challenges could delay deployment.

Source: Primicias