Venezuela revises electricity rationing plan

The Venezuelan government on Sunday adopted changes to its electricity rationing plan that was unveiled last month as part of measures to save energy.

The government launched the plan on April 25 that it cut electrical power by four hours a day for 40 days across much of the country, as it awaited rain needed to power a massive hydroelectric dam.

Four weeks into the rationing, the government said that the rolling electricity cuts will last for three hours per day, down from the originally planned four hours.

However, the cuts could be extended "depending on climate conditions and water levels at the El Guri dam," which provides 65 percent of the country's power supply, it said in a release.

The scheme maintains the current division of electric administration into blocks, which determine how municipalities and industrial zones will be affected, as well as the hours during which they will experience power cuts.

The rationing covers many of the country's largest cities, including the capital, as Electricity Minister, Luis Motta Dominguez, said in April that the rationing would be run in 10 of Venezuela's 23 states.

This rationing aims to preserve the water levels at the El Guri dam in eastern Venezuela that has been severely affected by droughts caused by El Nino.

Earlier this week, the minister said that "drought persists." Enditem