Venezuela punishes 80 firms for power use

CARACAS,  (Reuters) – Venezuela announced yesterday  24-hour power cutoffs for dozens of companies that have failed  to reduce usage in the first punitive measures of a nationwide  drive to save energy amid an electricity crisis.
Restaurants, liquor stores, hotels, gyms, car dealerships  and a yacht club were on the list of 80 firms in the capital  Caracas due to have their power cut on Monday for failing to  bring consumption down 20 percent, the state utility said.

The local unit of Japanese firm Sony Corp will also be  among those sanctioned.

President Hugo Chavez’s government has introduced  rationing, and demanded power cuts across the South American  OPEC member, to cope with an electricity shortage that is  jeopardizing Venezuela’s ability to pull out of a recession.

Drought has hit the hydroelectric sector that produces more  than 70 percent of Venezuela’s electricity. Rains are due in  weeks, with some showers already starting in recent days, and  the government says fears of a “collapse” are unfounded.

The opposition, preparing for a September legislative  election being cast as a referendum on Chavez and a  curtain-raiser for the 2012 presidential vote, says he is to  blame for incompetent management of the power sector.

Polls show Chavez’s traditionally high popularity,  especially among the poor, is suffering from the power crisis.

The latest survey, by Alfredo Keller and Associates, which  is perceived by many to favor the opposition, gave Chavez a 43  percent approval rating, saying it was his lowest since 2003.

Only 26 percent thought the government was taking the right  measures in the electricity campaign, according to the poll,  made public on Sunday by private TV network Globovision.

“This (opposition) campaign has, of course, one single aim:  declare Hugo Chavez guilty of everything, even the drought,”  the leftist leader wrote in a regular Sunday column he pens.

“Indeed, I would love to have the powers I’m accused of by  the opposition to defeat this situation which not only hurts  Venezuela but the whole world as a result of the destructive  voracity of the capitalist system.”

Chavez said Venezuela’s planned addition of nearly 6  gigawatts of thermoelectric energy this year, taking national  capacity to around 30 gigawatts, would help solve the crisis.

In a carrot-and-stick approach to businesses, state power  firm Electricidad de Caracas also published a list of 81  companies that had surpassed the 20 percent reduction target.

If the companies to be sanctioned today do not improve  their energy-saving performance in the future, they face a  three-day cutoff then possible indefinite power suspension.

Most attention in the energy crisis has centered on the  Guri reservoir, which normally supplies more than half of  Venezuela’s electricity but has been drying up at the rate of  about 6 inches (15 cm) a day in recent months.

Media have been showing pictures daily of lowering waters,  and counting down to a danger-level of about 240 yards (metres)  — from 252 now — when output would drop drastically.