Shut

Friday morning. The electric fluctuations were so frequent that I decided to go to the gym and work out for a bit. Though I was tempted to get angry with my work being interrupted, I remembered that Caracas is a bubble when it comes to electricity. In other parts of the country, blackouts happen sometimes twice a day, sometimes lasting for 16 hours in total.

In their anguish, people have taken to the streets, burning tires and blocking highways. Without fans or air conditioning it is hard to survive the Super El Niño phenomenon, which recently joined our catalog of misfortunes by raising temperatures across the board. Children who can’t sleep at night end up falling asleep in school the next day.

Not only that, these blackouts and power surges damage appliances and put water pumping stations offline, leaving communities without water supply. What makes everything worse is that authorities do not publish rationing schedules, making it impossible for families and businesses to undertake any minimal planning.

To “explain” things, the acting Delcy Rodríguez government celebrated the fact that national electricity demand exceeded 16,424 megawatts (MW) on September 22, calling it a “historic milestone” and highlighting a 9% increase compared to the peak demand in 2025.

What officials failed to mention is that in 2013 Venezuela recorded a demand of 18,700 MW, far, far higher than the figure announced this month, without any blackouts.

Furthermore, the supposed economic improvement is that oil production rose to 1.23 million barrels per day, but it appears that the United States is the only one benefiting from the additional revenue. The vast majority of the Venezuelan population is seeing absolutely no economic benefit, neither before nor after the twin earthquakes. Between shady business deals and power outages, we are truly in the dark.

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello assured that he “wouldn’t sugarcoat things for the people” and admitted that the electricity crisis “is a serious problem.” However, his solution was to ask mayors and governors to request that private companies with power plants generate their own electricity. We will then surely see a “record high” diesel demand, which will leave the agricultural sector without fuel.

The truth is that the blackouts are causing massive paralysis, costing the industrial sector up to 44% of its productive hours. In a country that has advocated  “economic diversification” for years, the little energy that is available is prioritized to keep oil production going in the oil-producing regions – lest Trump and the corporations get upset – and to try and mitigate the impact on the country’s capital. 

What is rarely mentioned is that although Venezuela has a nominal installed capacity of approximately 35,000 MW, a figure that doubles the national peak demand, actual stable generation barely reaches 12,000 MW. This operational deficit is what causes the constant blackouts the population is currently enduring. The 1,300 MW that the authorities promise to bring back online in the coming months will only slightly alleviate the issue.

The deterioration of the National Electric System (SEN) is structural and affects both transmission and distribution. The transmission grid exceeds its technical safety limits almost daily by transmitting more power than allowed, causing voltage fluctuations. At the same time, the distribution system has been deteriorating for years. There is a shortage of basic spare parts, transformers, and distribution cables resulting from years of US sanctions.

To add to the paradox, what is the proposed solution? Privatization! At a time when service is at its worst, the National Assembly has preliminarily approved reform of the Organic Law of the National Electricity System and Service to open up generation, transmission, distribution, and commercialization to private operators. The incentive is a new tariff structure designed to reflect “the real costs” of the service and generate “reasonable returns” for investors. 

Truth be told, if we were to pay “the real costs” of the current service, we would have to be compensated day after day. Perhaps people will go from having no electricity due to the condition of the power grid to having no electricity because they cannot afford the bill.

Even in a country where we’ve grown accustomed to hearing extravagant promises – ranging from millions of barrels of daily crude output to imminent economic prosperity – the outlook for electricity is far from encouraging. Preliminary assessments from experts suggest that a complete overhaul to prevent blackouts and modernize the grid in the medium and long term could cost up to $40 billion.

Maybe the US would be willing to “lend” us some of our own money to do this? Even if it did, we would obviously have to do it through US corporations, because if there’s one thing Washington knows how to do, it’s paying itself and keeping the change.

The best example is the recent oil deal, “the biggest in history” according to Trump. From what has been reported, Venezuela is going to hand over 17 prime oil fields, some producing extra-heavy crude in the vast Orinoco Belt and others producing light crude in Lake Maracaibo, to a company that seems straight out of a lazy Hollywood movie script.

The company in question is NABEP, owned by Alejandro Betancourt – who deserves a column all to himself – and which will now be under the control of the Pentagon. The US will have preferential access to the oil produced, including 20% at cost. The most screwed-over country in the hemisphere, handing over subsidized oil to the superpower that kept it under a vicious blockade for more than a decade.

Which brings us back to the electricity problem. From the oil deal to the state of the electrical grid, propagandists want us to believe that once the US is satisfied, once the transnational corporations and their local allies are making enough money, things will improve for the Venezuelan people. We have seen that movie before and it turns out differently. Let the last one out turn off the lights.

Jessica Dos Santos is a Venezuelan university professor, journalist and writer whose work has appeared in outlets such as RT, Épale CCS magazine and Investig’Action. She is the author of the book “Caracas en Alpargatas” (2018). She’s won the Aníbal Nazoa Journalism Prize in 2014 and received honorable mentions in the Simón Bolívar National Journalism prize in 2016 and 2018.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Venezuelanalysis editorial staff.

OMDURMAN: For almost a year, Randa al-Mansour, a 31-year-old Sudanese housewife, has relied on solar energy panels installed on the rooftop of her building to survive the recurrent blackouts triggered by the war-torn country’s deteriorating electricity grid.

“We are suffering big time,” said al-Mansour, who lives with her three children in Omdurman, just outside the capital of Khartoum.

“When kids arrive at school in the morning, they find no electricity there, so they are forced to head back home, where there is none either. It is very hard for them to study under such a high temperature.”

The Sudanese military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have been fighting since April 2023, killing at least 59,000 people, though aid groups say the number could be higher, and displacing some 13 million.

The conflict also has strained an already weak power infrastructure, forcing many Sudanese to seek alternative energy sources, especially during scorching summer heat. The United Nations Development Program has estimated the damage inflicted on the electricity grid at $3 billion.

“We resorted to solar energy as a way of adapting to this situation. However, not everyone in Sudan can afford this solution,” said al-Mansour, who supports her family with remittances from her husband working in Saudi Arabia.

In recent months, billboards advertising solar panels, batteries, and inverters have expanded in the capital as more Sudanese consider transitioning to solar energy.

“For a low-income family, installing a solar panel system is a huge sacrifice but an inevitable choice,” said Mohey Eddin Abu-Bark, owner of a solar systems business in Khartoum, adding that a typical household 10-kilowatt solar system costs nearly $5,000.

Manahel Madany, a 43-year-old diabetic civil servant, cannot afford the transition, despite needing steady electricity for her fridge for her insulin.

“Every three to four days, I am forced to throw away all my insulin stock after it goes bad due to heat and power outages,” said Madany.

She lives in a two-bedroom house with her mother and sister in Omdurman, and like many Sudanese, the three are forced to sleep in their house courtyard to escape the searing heat indoors.

“Not all pharmacies can afford to install solar panels for medical storage, and that’s why most medications have become unavailable,” Madany said.

The Sudan Doctors’ Network, which tracks violence across the country, warned that the continued electricity cuts could impact patients in hospitals, especially kidney patients who need constant care.

At least 30% of Sudan’s population has no access to electricity, with rural areas bearing the brunt, according to the World Bank. Conditions in grid-connected urban centers have also deteriorated, with power outages reaching up to 16 hours in many parts of the country in recent months, according to two electricity department officials who spoke to The Associated Press.

Electricity production has dropped from 4,400 megawatts before the war to 1,100 megawatts as many power plants were hit by drones launched by the RSF, while nearly half of Sudan’s best electricity engineers and technicians have also left the country since 2023, the officials said, citing a survey by a local labor union.

The two spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

Sudan has limitless potential to generate solar energy given the long hours of sunshine that often exceed 4,000 hours per year, according to the U.N. However, the high upfront cost of imported solar energy systems and a depreciating local currency derail the transition to clean energy.