Vice-President Elías Jaua insisted on state television that the blackout was “an isolated event" and was not the prelude to “a power grid collapse", but despite his assurances there are concerns that the government only managed to add 1,700MW of new generation capacity last year, just one-third of the amount promised by President Hugo Chávez , meaning that demand is perilously close to supply, allowing no room for manoeuvre in the event of another severe drought lowering the water level in the Guri dam. Chávez is promising investment of US$3bn to US$4bn to boost capacity this year.
Rodríguez last week called on the population to curb consumption which he called excessive and among the highest per capita in the world (Chávez last year called on people to restrict themselves to three-minute showers) but experts claim that private usage only amounts to 22% of total national usage, with oil and basic industries using half of the total.
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