Electricity budget US$250million short, rationing continues

posted on: Mar 3 2010 9:51 by Royston. Viewed 401 times.


The Superintendent of Electricity, Francisco Mendez, has revealed that, even with energy rationing, the US$350 million budget for this year will not be enough. Another US$250 million will be needed to cover the deficit.

He referred to the shortfall between income and expenditure of resources in the electrical system - and pointed out that the subsidy in 2009 was US$ 700 million.

Answering questions in relation to complaints by householders about the increase of blackouts in recent days, he said the government has to ration the available supply of energy to keep the cost within an affordable budget.

In his response, Mendez compared the level of deficit between supply and demand for energy in recent days. He said the shortfall was 25% on average in the day and 20% at night. He claimed a major factor was that the San Felipe plant was generating only 70 megawatts instead of 170, due to fuel shortages. He said measures were in place to bring more fuel to the plant.

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