{"id":510,"date":"2016-04-14T16:15:31","date_gmt":"2016-04-14T20:15:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/utilitieslocal.com\/news\/?p=510"},"modified":"2016-04-14T16:15:31","modified_gmt":"2016-04-14T20:15:31","slug":"drought-in-venezuela-causes-electricity-shortage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/utilitieslocal.com\/news\/drought-in-venezuela-causes-electricity-shortage\/","title":{"rendered":"Drought in Venezuela causes electricity shortage"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Country switches to 3-day weekend to conserve energy<\/h2>\n<p>Venezuela has an electricity problem, and the country is taking drastic measures in an effort to ensure that the country doesn&#8217;t go dark.<\/p>\n<p>With electricity supply running perilously low, Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro announced recently that every Friday through April and May will be a public holiday. Yes, the country is turning to 3-day weekends in an effort to save electricity.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Venezuela is switching to a 3-day weekend in a desperate bid to save electricity&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/k3cM4DzoFU\">https:\/\/t.co\/k3cM4DzoFU<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/5ea4ADEAJV\">pic.twitter.com\/5ea4ADEAJV<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; ScienceAlert (@ScienceAlert) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ScienceAlert\/status\/718695456654680064\">April 9, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Severe drought<\/h3>\n<p>The root of the country&#8217;s energy crisis is a lack of rain. Venezuela is in the midst of its <a href=\"http:\/\/venezuelanalysis.com\/news\/11822\" title=\"worst drought in 47 years\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>worst drought in 47 years<\/strong><\/a>, which correlates directly with the nation&#8217;s ability to generate electricity.<\/p>\n<p>Venezuela&#8217;s energy supply relies heavily on hydro-electricity generation, and the current drought conditions are making hydropower increasingly unreliable. <\/p>\n<p>The Guri Dam reportedly provides as much as 75 percent of the electricity used in Caracas, the nation&#8217;s capital. Under normal circumstances, the Guri Dam also produces electricity for upwards of two-fifths of the country.<\/p>\n<h3>Rain in the forecast?<\/h3>\n<p>As water levels continue to fall and the country continues to dry out, Venezuelans continue to <a href=\"https:\/\/widerimage.reuters.com\/story\/drought-hit-venezuela-waits-for-rain\" title=\"wait for the rain\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>wait for the rain<\/strong><\/a>. Current forecasts don&#8217;t spell the end to the drought just yet, so, for now, the three-day weekend and other rationing measures will have to take the place of much-needed rain.<\/p>\n<span class=\"source-attribution\">Orginally published on &rarr; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.e-wisdom.com\/news\/venezuela-drought-is-causing-electricity-problems\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">E-Wisdom<\/a><\/span><div class=\"pd-photo-att\">Photo Credit: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Represa_del_Guri,_Ciudad_Guayana.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Photo<\/a> by Enrique Rodriguez Bencomo \/ <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">CC BY-SA 3.0<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With electricity supply running perilously low, Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro announced that every Friday in April and May will be a public holiday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":511,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/utilitieslocal.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/utilitieslocal.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/utilitieslocal.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utilitieslocal.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utilitieslocal.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=510"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/utilitieslocal.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":513,"href":"https:\/\/utilitieslocal.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510\/revisions\/513"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utilitieslocal.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/utilitieslocal.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utilitieslocal.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utilitieslocal.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}