40%
Of Venezuela Affected By
New Blackout
Caracas - Up to 40
percent of Venezuela was plunged into
darkness for at least 15 minutes on Thursday
as the country continues to address
electricity supply problems.
The state-run National Electric Corporation
(Corpoelec) said the blackout was due to
failures at the country's biggest
thermopower plant in Carabobo state and in
the power supply systemin Vergara state.
Corpoelec president Hipolito Izquierdo said
the failures had occurred at 1:15 p.m. (1745
GMT) and cut electricity supply to Caracas
and 13 of the country's 23 states.
The affected states included Aragua,
Barinas, Carabobo, Guarico,Lara,Merida,
Miranda, Nueva Esparta, Portuguesa, Sucre,
Tachira, Vargas and Zulia, according to the
Corpoelec chief.
The 43-station Caracas Subway was stopped by
the blackout and train services linking
Caracas with Miranda was also affected,
track transport authorities confirmed.
Izquierdo assured the public that power
supplies were being re-established in most
affected states.
Official figures have put Venezuela's 2009
electricity deficit at 4 percent and the
Venezuelan government is investing to
diversify electricity generation sources in
the country, which currently gets 70 percent
of its electricity from the Guri hydro dam.
Venezuela has already spent 3.1 million U.S.
dollars on power diversification between
2008 and this year.
For the first time in 10 years, Venezuela
encountered four big blackouts in 2008.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
