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26 June 2003 - Venezuela is to receive ten mobile thermal power plants with total capacity of 60 MW from the US. The units cost $52m and will begin to arrive next month, according to Energy and Mines Minister Rafael Ramirez.
Over the next three months, more such units will arrive, increasing that added capacity to 150 MW, Ramirez said. "These will add to existing facilities during times of crisis due to drought," said Ramirez.
The Guri hydroelectric complex in Venezuela's Bolivar state currently provides about 70 per cent of the country's electricity needs, which totalled 89,562 GWh last year, 2.8 per cent higher than in 2001.
Power demand is levelling off this year, in tandem with a shrinking economy, which contracted 29 per cent in the first quarter.
In the first five months of this year electricity demand fell to 35 928 GWh, about 1.8 per cent less than 36 605 GWh in the same period last year, according to the local electricity chamber.
Electricity demand has, however, been outpacing the development of supply, and the country is currently buying power from private providers to plug a shortfall that government officials have blamed on record-low reservoir levels due to insufficient rainfall last year.
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