The productivity of companies and industries in the state of Táchira in western Venezuela is being affected by almost 70%, as a consequence of the serious electricity supply crisis that has been worsening in recent weeks, according to a survey applied to more than 340 members of the Chamber of Commerce and Industries in the entity.
By Luz Dary Depablos / by correspondent lapatilla.com
For this reason, the affected businessmen propose buying reliable energy from Colombia in order to find a viable solution in the short and medium term.
Yionnel Contreras, President of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Táchira, reported that companies that operate from 8:00 in the morning to 5:00 in the afternoon and experience power outages of 4 hours, lose approximately 44.6% of their productivity.
In the case where the outages exceed 6 hours, the loss amounts to 67%, and when the outages are greater than 8 hours, productivity is reduced by almost 90%, this when considering that most enterprises generally have regular operating schedules of between 9 and 10 hours.
He also pointed out that 87% of those surveyed indicated that the payment of utility bills has increased by more than 100%.
35% of members of the Chamber of Commerce in Táchira State report an increase of up to more than 500% in the fees for electricity and water. However, these increases are not reflected in the improvement of services, but on the contrary, the electricity crisis worsens every day.
He explained that: “it is unsustainable to pay salaries and services without having the necessary productivity. Most companies in Táchira have 20 or more workers on their payroll. How can we continue to maintain these jobs if we cannot generate goods and services? Our productivity is strongly affected when a company that should produce for 12 or 9 hours is paralyzed for 8 hours due to power outages. We are losing between 46%, 67% and even 98% of our productive capacity,” said Yionnel Contreras.
Given this situation, 84% of the businessmen consulted supported the idea of importing energy from Colombia as a short-term solution, taking advantage of the fact that there is a binational interconnected system through the José Antonio Páez station, located on the border, which could supply power from Colombia to Táchira and this is possible very quickly, since waiting for Corpoelec to invest in the country could take up to more than five years, during which time the companies could become completely obsolete and, therefore, close.
“We know that we are the tail of the national interconnected system, any failure in any state of Venezuela dramatically affects Táchira State. We are always being affected by voltage surges or brownouts that affect our equipment. We prefer to pay expensive energy and not have a plant between 60% and 90% inoperative. Paying energy to Colombia would be cheaper than paying salaries to employees without working or paying for services without them being supplied,” said the president of the Chamber of Commerce.
Contreras also stated that 80% of those surveyed indicated that their sales decreased at the end of the third quarter of 2023 in relation to the previous year, so if the constant blackouts continue and for a prolonged time it would lead to the total paralysis of operations the few companies that still remain in the Andean entity.
He explained that working with power plants is also unsustainable, since the fuel quotas assigned by PDVSA to companies to access diesel run out in only 10 days and the rest of the month they do not have fuel to produce.
When asked about Nicolás Maduro’s announcement about offering energy to Brazil, he considered that: “this is a political issue, which is handled with the Brazilian government. Really, I don’t think that energy is being given to Brazil at this moment with the situation at the Guri dam that we all are aware of, which is not producing the amount of megawatts that it should.”