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Apr-30-2008Life Stalls in Venezuela as Power Shuts Off(topic overview)
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CARACAS, April 29 (Reuters) - A power outage hit eight states and capital city Caracas in major oil exporter Venezuela on Tuesday shutting down the metro and mobile phone services, emergency services said and called for calm. [1] CARACAS, April 29 (Reuters) - A power outage hit towns in major oil exporter Venezuela on Tuesday including large parts of capital city Caracas, witnesses said.[2]
CARACAS, April 29 (Reuters) - A major power outage hit almost half of Venezuela including the capital Caracas on Tuesday, and officials called for calm when workers streamed through the streets after the transport system ground to a halt.[3]
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — A power outage left wide swaths of Venezuela without electricity on Tuesday, including much of the capital.[4]
The streets of Caracas, Venezuela, are thronged with people during Tuesday's power outage.[5]
The transmission lines that overheated and failed were near the Guri hydroelectric dam in eastern Venezuela, said Gen. Hipolito Izquierdo, president of the National Electric Corp. He told state television that the initial failure set off a chain reaction during peak power consumption hours on a hot day. It was unclear if the outage had affected Venezuela's oil industry.[4] Between 40 percent and 50 percent of Venezuelas territory was affected by the outage starting at about 4 p.m., said Gen. Hipolito Izquierdo, president of the National Electric Corp.[6]
Officials said full power services would be restored within hours across the crude-exporting nation and that the metro was up and running. "It happened at the moment of peak demand," said Hipolito Izquierdo, head of the country's electricity authority. [7] The government said the blackout was caused by a forest fire burning through a cable. It said electricity supplies would be restored within hours across the oil-exporting nation. "It happened at the moment of peak demand," said Hiploito Izquierdo, head of the country's electricity authority.[3]
"We understand that at 1600 hours -- that is to say at 4 p.m. (4:30 p.m. ET) -- there was a blackout on a national level that was produced by an explosion, which is being investigated" in the Guri hydroelectric power station, Caracas Mayor Juan Barreto said. "That produced a blackout in 16 states of the country, particularly those of the central north coastal area." The city's emergency plan kicked in, and about 400 firefighters in training had reported for duty to help, he said. [5] The outage affected 13 of the country's 24 states, Interior Minister Ramon Rodriguez Chacin said. He said Tuesday night that power was gradually being restored, saying "there's no emergency."[4]
Venezuela's socialist president, Hugo Chavez, nationalized two electricity companies last year, but the power failure occurred at the country's distribution company, which has always been in state hands.[7] The outage was caused by a failure of the transmission system near the Guri hydroelectric dam in eastern Venezuela, said Javier Alvarado, president of the state utility Electricidad de Caracas, on state television.[6]
Small-scale blackouts are common in rural regions in Venezuela but Caracas' power supply is usually stable; Tuesday's outage was Venezuela's largest in years.[7]
Power was restored to most regions and Caracas by mid-evening, but thousands of workers walked home through the crime-ridden city after the metro train system shut down and traffic signals failed. Drivers pounded their vehicles' horns in the main avenues, which were clogged with traffic as darkness fell. The presidential palace used backup generators to keep its power on.[7] Power was restored to some parts of Caracas as thousands of workers walked home in the gun-crime wracked capital after the metro train system closed and traffic signals failed.[3]
Officials said full power services would be restored within hours across the crude-exporting nation and that the metro was up and running. [8]
The head of the country's electric authority, Hipolito Izquierdo, told state-run Venezuelan Television that 60 percent of the power had been restored by 7 p.m. local time (7:30 p.m. ET) and predicted that power would be fully restored before 9:30 p.m. (10 p.m. ET). "We are now recovering," he said.[5] Izquierdo said power would be restored to the rest of the country during the evening.[7]
The blackout was caused by a forest fire that overheated power lines in the central state of Guarico, the energy ministry said in a statement. [4] Minister of Interior and Justice Ramon Rodriguez Chacin blamed a fault in a generator at the plant in Guri, which caused a high-voltage power transmission line to overheat. In taking the line out of service, power was disrupted to other areas, he said.[5]
An official at the state-owned oil company PDVSA said refineries and drilling operations were not hit even though power was out in the oil-producing states of Falcon and Zulia. "Everything is perfectly normal, we are doing the analyses and evaluations normal in these cases," the official said. [7] Affected zones included parts of the capital city of Caracas -- where streetlights were dark -- and the states of Zulia, Lara, Carabobo, Yaracuy, Portuguesa, Miranda, Falcon, Merida, Aragua, Bolivar and Tachira, the station said.[5] The blackout caused stoplights to stop functioning, aggravating traffic jams, and temporarily closed some subway stations in Caracas.[4] Many citizens in Caracas heeded calls from emergency services to remain calm. "We're not taking it too seriously, people are having fun," said security guard Carlos Castillo, who was drinking a beer while he waited for the traffic to calm before heading home.[8]
The cause of the energy failure was not immediately clear and Caracas power company Electricidad de Caracas said it could not comment.[1] Power returned to downtown Caracas after about an hour and a half, then went out again and soon returned.[4] Power returned to downtown Caracas after about an hour and a half. It was unclear how soon power would be re-established in other areas.[6]
The government said later that 85 percent of Venezuela's energy supply had been restored, and that oil operations were unaffected, but gave confused accounts of the cause of the blackout. [7]
SOURCES
1. Eight states and capital hit by Venezuela power cut | Markets | Markets News | Reuters
2. Power outage hits Venezuela towns, capital Caracas | Markets | Markets News | Reuters
3. UPDATE 3-Much of Venezuela, capital hit by power outage | Markets | Reuters
4. The Associated Press: Forest fire causes power outage in Venezuela
5. Widespread power outages in Venezuela - CNN.com
6. Power failure hits Caracas and large swath of Venezuela - International Herald Tribune
7. News | Africa - Reuters.com
8. Venezuela hit by power outage - 30 Apr 2008 - NZ Herald: World / International News
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