Peter Wilson

Special for USA TODAY

LA VICTORIA, Venezuela - Embattled President Nicolas Maduro gave the country’s 1-million-plus public administration employees Fridays off for the next two months in a bid to reduce electricity use in the oil-rich country and avert a collapse of the power grid.



Maduro also called on his citizens yesterday to reduce their power consumption, the highest in Latin America, in a bid to cope with the burgeoning crisis that has disrupted life for weeks. If all of the government’s proposals are implemented, power consumption could fall by up to 20%, Maduro said.



“I want to avoid painful rationing,” Maduro said during a nationwide

televised address.



Venezuela, which derives 70% of its electricity from hydroelectric plants, is facing an electrical crisis, partially caused by El Niño weather phenomenon. The resulting drought has reduced water levels at the country’s hydroelectric plants, in turn slashing generator output.



Maduro, who is facing calls that he step down, also blames the crisis on sabotage by his opponents, as well as higher living standards as a result of his government’s socialist revolution.



Maduro said he hoped that all Venezuelans would cooperate. He singled out women for particular mention, saying half jokingly that they should try to use their hair dryers less.



“I always have thought that a woman looks prettier when she combs her hair with her fingers and lets her hair dry naturally,” he said.



Venezuela’s opposition derided Maduro’s proposal of saving power by creating three-day weekends, saying it would further hurt the country’s economy, which is already reeling from massive shortages and inflation expected to top 700% this year.

“They themselves say that the largest consumption of power is residential use,” opposition leader and Miranda State Gov.

Henrique Capriles said in a press conference. “Isn’t that a contradiction if they then send people home” to save power?



Capriles and others blame the crisis on the government’s inefficiency and mismanagement, massive corruption, lack of investment, unrealistically low tariffs and chronic power theft by Venezuelans illegally connecting their houses to the state power grid.



Analysts estimate that up to 40% of all power generated in Venezuela isn’t billed to the end consumer. Many households have no power meters, and many pay just pennies a month for electricity, a fact that encourages waste.



In 2013, Venezuelans paid on average U.S. $0.03 per kilowatt hour. That compared to the international average of 9.2 cents per kilowatt hour, and 5.3 cents in Argentina, 9.8 cents in Colombia, 11.1 cents in Brazil, 15 cents in Chile and 17.5 cents in Europe.

Rates haven’t changed since 2003, when Chavez froze rates during a nationwide strike to force him from office. Maduro, who raised domestic gasoline prices in February, said higher rates are also being considered.



Many cities outside the capital of Caracas have had unofficial rationing for weeks, as Maduro’s government has sought to reduce consumption during peak daylight hours. Businesses, factories and banks have no choice but to close when the cuts occur.



“We’re without power two to three hours a day,” says Angela Nunez, a 46-year-old housewife in the central industrial city of Maracay. “There’s no warning, there’s no advance notice. They just cut the power. I’ve called the power company to see if it’s a cut or a failure and no one can tell me.”

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Venezuela last experienced such cuts in 2009 when a similar drought led the late President Hugo Chavez to declare an energy emergency, implementing rationing for all of the country except for Caracas.



Healso earmarked billions of dollars to build new thermo-electric plants to avert such shortages in the future. Many now question where the money went.



Venezuela’s Electricity Ministry said in 2011 that per capita power consumption in the country was 3,900 kilowatts-hour (kWh). That figure was 85% higher than consumption in more industrialized Brazil, (2,100 kWh); three times higher than neighboring Colombia (1,100 kWh); a quarter more than Argentina (3,100 kWh) and 11% higher than Chile (3,500 kWh).