Energy crisis in Venezuela

[6][7] The energy problem was widely politicized in Venezuela: in addition to the drought, the Chávez government also blamed wealthy sectors of the population of the crisis, assuring that they wasted electricity.

[13][14] Venezuela, the main oil exporter in South America, suffered from a long drought that significantly reduced the volume of water in the dams of hydroelectric plants.

[19] The aging infrastructure made the problems worse,[18] and critics were silenced; a union leader for state power workers was arrested in 2018 by the Bolivarian Intelligence Service for warning that a blackout was likely.

[21] The private company, Electricidad de Caracas was owned by the United States' AES Corporation until 2007; according to The Wall Street Journal, "Venezuela's power grid was once the envy of Latin America".

[17] Then-President Hugo Chávez created the state-run Corpoelec by nationalizing the electric sector and expelling private industry in 2007;[19] hence, the state has been solely responsible for energy supply for over ten years.

The government foresaw that if nothing were done, this level would be reached in May 2010, so it began to execute a series of measures that seek to reduce electricity demand and minimize Venezuela's dependence on hydroelectric power plants.

That is the reality.Subsequently, on 18 March, the Minister of Electric Power, Alí Rodríguez Araque, accused the Venezuelan opposition of causing fear in the population by talking about a "collapse.

[27] On 23 April, the Minister of the Environment, Alejandro Hitcher, assured that the Guri would reach a normal growth rate within fifteen or twenty days.

[28] However, according to Miguel Lara, former general manager of the Interconnected Systems Operation Office, the crisis continued due to problems in the thermal generation park and transmission lines, although he recognized that it is unlikely that the Guri will collapse.

[33][34] Electrical specialists believe that Planta Centro is unlikely to recover in the short term, claiming lack of maintenance in recent years as the main cause.

[8][35] According to figures from the Office of Operation of Interconnected Systems, the Chávez government completed less than half of the investments in thermoelectric energy generation planned in 2005.

[38] The Chávez administration "distributed million-dollar contracts without bidding that enriched high officials of his government and the works were never built", according to Univision.

[17] Billions of dollars were awarded in contracts for projects that were never completed, leading to international investigations of "high officials of the Chavez regime today persecuted for plundering the coffers of the Bolivarian Republic".

[17][19] Of 40 energy projects approved between 2010 and 2014 analyzed by Transparency Venezuela, 17 are not completed as of March 2019, none are operating at capacity, and overcharging by billions of dollars was identified.

[24] In addition, industries were ordered to reduce by 20% its electricity consumption, with a penalty of temporary interruption of the service in case they did not reach the goal.

[47][48][49] Rationing would then be maintained only on weekdays during peak hours, due to the partial recovery of the reservoirs thanks to the arrival of rains and the inauguration of some electrical works.

[4] According to the newspaper El Tiempo, Barcelona and Puerto la Cruz, two cities of Anzoátegui state, went almost 62 hours without electricity in a period of six days, due to faults in circuits and substations.

[5] In other parts of the country, the blackouts would be driven by faults in the transmission lines, and because several units of the Simón Bolívar Hydroelectric Plant is under maintenance.

[56] The Minister of Energy and Mines, Rafael Ramírez, calculated that Venezuela would need 100,000 barrels of diesel fuel a day to maintain the thermoelectric plants working, once they are all operational.

[18] In 2016, Venezuela had a severe electricity crisis that caused blackouts, industry shutdowns, and the decision by then-President Nicolás Maduro to cut back on government employee's work hours.

[20] Maduro's administration has put rationing in place several times, and changed the country's clocks to accommodate a daytime commute.