MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Venezuela’s most populated areas suffer another major blackout

Electricity Minister Ali Rodriguez alleges ‘possible sabotage’

Blackouts blamed on forest fires left without power whole areas of north and central Venezuela, including Caracas, officials said. The power outages began last Thursday due to the collapse of electrical lines located 250 kilometres west of Caracas, Electricity Minister Ali Rodriguez said.

The minister said power was gradually restored and that an hour and a half after the blackout technicians only needed to “recover 25 megawatts of the more than 5,000 (megawatts of capacity affected) by the interruption”.

According to government figures, current demand in Venezuela averages 16,650 MW out of a total capacity of 17,922MW.

The blackout may have been caused by a forest fire and “it is likely” the blaze was set intentionally, Rodriguez told state-run VTV television, although he admitted it was not a categorical statement.

Interior and Justice Minister Tareck El Aissami said the power outage did not lead to any breakdown in “public order,” although he acknowledged it did prompt major transportation disruptions.

Transportation and Communications Minister Francisco Garces said port and airport operations had resumed normally, while the head of the Caracas Metro, Haiman el Troudi, said “controlled evacuations” were necessary to move passengers to arrival platforms.

Similar measures were taken to assist stranded rail passengers, including moving one train with 400 passengers to a station located 50 kilometres south of Caracas, the president of the state-controlled railroad company, Franklin Perez, said.

The blackout occurred several days after Rodriguez announced that no power rationing would be necessary even though demand had risen and is currently above 16,000 MW.

Rodriguez announced on April 1 that Venezuela would purchase energy from Colombia until supply problems are resolved.

President Hugo Chavez’s government plans to add an additional 16,195 megawatts of capacity to the national power grid through 2015 after announcing a 30 billion US dollars investment program to modernize the electricity system, which was nearly crippled in early 2010 amid a severe drought.

That crisis, in which water supplies dried up at key hydroelectric dams, forced the government to enact nationwide rolling blackouts – except in Caracas – to ration electricity.

However opposition argues that the reiteration of power blackouts, in spite of climate adversities is also attributed to the lack of maintenance and investment in the power sector since the industry was nationalized after having been declared “a strategic sector” for Venezuela by President Hugo Chavez.