With reports from M. León and M. Armas

President Hugo Chávez signed a decree declaring an electricity emergency for a period of 60 days, extendable, as part of his strategy to encourage energy saving. He announced a 100 percent hike on the monthly price of the electric bill to all residential users who increase their demand by 10 percent, whereas those clients whose demand exceed 20 percent will pay a 200 percent surcharge.

The measure will also be applied to all those energy users who consume more than 500 kilowatt-hours of energy per month and do not reduce their consumption by at least 10 percent. In this case, clients will face a 75 percent rise.

In both cases, the names of heavy energy users will be published in national newspapers. The status will be checked every week.

The government also decided to reward low energy consumers. Residential users who reduce their demand by 10 percent or 20 percent will get a 25 percent to 50 percent discount, said President Chávez in a nationwide mandatory simultaneous broadcast on all free-to-air TV and radio stations.

The commercial sector was also included in the new package of energy rationing measures. From now on, all stores will be forced to reduce their demand in two phases, each representing a 10 percent reduction, based on the kilowatts used during the same month in 2009.

On the other hand, Chávez reported that he authorized Electricity Minister Alí Rodríguez Araque to take the necessary special measures he deems it appropriate to secure the electricity supply.

Under the decree 7,228, whereby the state of emergency in the electric sector was issued, the government instructed authorities to track and eliminate illegal connections to the power grid.

The decree also empowers the Electricity Minister to demand immediate payment from public and private entities.

Some hours before, President Chávez justified the state of emergency in the electric sector during the inauguration of a radio show, broadcast by the state-run radio, Radio Nacional de Venezuela.

President Chávez said that "the decree on energy emergency is a necessity. (...) The Venezuelan opposition is determined to blame the government for the lack of rain."

Translated by Gerardo Cárdenas