Venezuala SHUT DOWN for a Week--No Electricity

[wili]

Venezuela to Shut Down for a Week to Cope With Electricity Crisis

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-16/venezuela-to-shut-down-for-a-week-as-electricity-crisis-mounts

The Guri dam, which is the source of 65% of all of Venezuela’s electricity, is less than four meters from reaching the level where power generation will be impossible, according to experts interviewed by Latin American Herald Tribune.

http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=2407640&CategoryId=10717

As GW proceeds, we will see such things more and more, both because of drought depriving damns of the power that drives hydro, and because water sources will become too hot to cool nuclear power plants.

Yet another reason that these are not the best bets for major investments for our energy future.

http://www.vox.com/2016/3/17/11254860/venezuela-electricity-crisis

The roots of Venezuela's horrific electricity crisis:
The country is shutting down for an entire week after a series of rolling blackouts.

[Sigmetnow]

Info on water level and turbine cavitation affecting Guri Dam:

Everything you ever wanted to know about Guri but were afraid to ask
The lower the water level at Guri goes, the more water you need to produce the same amount of power, and the more you risk damaging the actual turbines.
http://caracaschronicles.com/2016/03/15/everything-ever-wanted-know-guri-afraid-ask/

[ritter]

Just to note that this is not particular to the Guri Dam. California has had reduced hydro power in its mix during this drought. It's looking better for this summer, but who knows long-term.

[tombond]

Venezuela to Shut Down for a Week to Cope With Electricity Crisis

As GW proceeds, we will see such things more and more, both because of drought depriving damns of the power that drives hydro, and because water sources will become too hot to cool nuclear power plants.

Yet another reason that these are not the best bets for major investments for our energy future.

These comments appear to be driven by political belief not objective evidence.

If we are serious about reducing CO2 emissions we need to use all the most effective low carbon technologies that are available.
 
In Table 3.5 attached, the IPCC has published the carbon dioxide intensities of fuels and electricity for regions and countries. 
https://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/special-reports/sroc/Tables/t0305.pdf

Note that countries such as Switzerland, Sweden, Norway and France which use nuclear or hydro or a combination of both, have the lowest emissions, all less than 100g/kWh.

Countries which promote a renewable energy only policy such as Denmark, Germany, Spain, Italy and Australia have much higher emissions 385g/kWh to 885g/kWh.

[wili]

Yes, France where they had to shut down many nukes in the midst of the 2003 heatwave because the water was too hot.

That's not politics; it's attested history.

We don't have to just turn to whatever alternatives present themselves. We have to turn to alternatives that are the safest, cheapest, most reliable, and easiest to deploy rapidly.

But let's keep this thread mostly about the crisis in Venezuala, shall we?

[AbruptSLR]

Guri Dam is only the tip of the iceberg according to the linked article which indicates that thousands of hydropower plant will be left high and dry by mid-century; which will increase power demands from other sources:

http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2016/jan/27/from-the-nile-to-the-amazon-climate-change-threatens-hydropower

Extract: "Thousands of hydrodams risk being left high and dry by mid-century as global warming takes hold."

[Sigmetnow]

Venezuelans Get Fridays Off in Bid to Ease Energy Crisis

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro has decreed that all Fridays for the next two months will be holidays, in a bid to save energy in the blackout-hit OPEC country.

"We'll have long weekends," Maduro said in an hours-long appearance on state television on Wednesday night, announcing the measure as part of a 60-day plan to fight a power crunch.

http://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/venezuelans-get-fridays-bid-ease-energy-crisis-n552271

[AbruptSLR]

The linked article indicates that much of Venezuela's massive electricity crisis could have been avoided with good governance.  To me this is a precautionary tale for all of the likely coming future climate change related crisis, which could (but almost certainly will not) be avoid by good governance worldwide:

http://www.vox.com/2016/3/17/11254860/venezuela-electricity-crisis

Extract: "Venezuela's massive electricity crisis keeps getting worse and worse.
…
How did things get so bad? Partly this is a story about drought. More than 60 percent of Venezuela's electricity comes from hydropower, and a lack of rainfall this winter due to El Niño has led to low water levels at its all-important Guri Dam.
But the bigger story here is that Venezuela's socialist government has badly mismanaged the electric grid for years. Since 2000, the country has failed to add enough electric capacity to satisfy soaring demand, making it incredibly vulnerable to disruptions at its existing dams."

[Sigmetnow]

Yellow Water, Dirty Air, Power Outages: Venezuela Hits a New Low

It has been an exceptionally painful year for Venezuelans, suffering from violent crime, chronic shortages, plummeting oil prices on which they depend, declining health and fractured government. Yet this past week it seemed to reach a new low. A kind of resigned misery spread across a city that had once been the envy of Latin America.

A sudden combination of natural disasters joined man-made failures. The smog, called calima, is a meteorological phenomenon that involves ash and dust clouds fairly common for this time of year. Meanwhile a prolonged drought blamed on El Nino and related forest fires has arrived. Levels at the Guri dam in the south, which produces 40 percent of the country’s electricity, are reaching record lows.

The lack of public order means attempts to alleviate the problems are going poorly. Water trucks dispatched to help reduce suffering from the drought, for example, are being routinely robbed.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-18/yellow-water-dirty-air-power-outages-venezuela-hits-a-new-low

[AbruptSLR]

Yellow Water, Dirty Air, Power Outages: Venezuela Hits a New Low

It has been an exceptionally painful year for Venezuelans, suffering from violent crime, chronic shortages, plummeting oil prices on which they depend, declining health and fractured government. Yet this past week it seemed to reach a new low. A kind of resigned misery spread across a city that had once been the envy of Latin America.

A sudden combination of natural disasters joined man-made failures. The smog, called calima, is a meteorological phenomenon that involves ash and dust clouds fairly common for this time of year. Meanwhile a prolonged drought blamed on El Nino and related forest fires has arrived. Levels at the Guri dam in the south, which produces 40 percent of the country’s electricity, are reaching record lows.

The lack of public order means attempts to alleviate the problems are going poorly. Water trucks dispatched to help reduce suffering from the drought, for example, are being routinely robbed.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-18/yellow-water-dirty-air-power-outages-venezuela-hits-a-new-low

While the greed of capitalism may be driving the rate of climate change, this example of socialist incompetence indicates to me that the best way to currently address climate change would to be to extend the Paris Pact to include strong worldwide carbon pricing plans.

[A-Team]

this is not particular to the Guri Dam California has had reduced hydro power in its mix

I dunno if the govt here is any better. Lake Mead and Lake Powell are over-allocated and also doing poorly in the Colorado River basin drought, with same concerns for operative water levels for the Glen Canyon dam. That hydro -- and power from the Navajo Generating Station in Page Az fueled by coal mined by bankrupt Peabody Energy -- do the irrigation pumping and bring CAP canal water to Phoenix and Tucson. To whose woes Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Diego should be added. We are in effect all living in Biosphere II and just now realizing how over-built we are and how fragile the remote dependencies

[AbruptSLR]

I dunno if the govt here is any better.

Implementation of strong carbon pricing plans would leave decision making largely in the market place, but would help reduce the market imbalances caused by allowing capitalist to emit GHG pollution free of charge (which is a monopolistic act based on greed, which Adam Smith would not approve of).  My point is that our government is an oligarchy controlled by the 1% that prevent the passing of carbon pricing plans so that they can make more money.

[Sigmetnow]

Venezuela state employees to work two-day week to save energy

Venezuela's socialist government ordered public workers on Tuesday to work a two-day week as an energy-saving measure in the crisis-hit South American OPEC country.
...
"From tomorrow, for at least two weeks, we are going to have Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays as non-working days for the public sector," Maduro said on his weekly television program.
...
"Maduro says that 'we in government don't stop working for a second'. Of course. Except for Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays!" satirized Leonardo Padron, a columnist for pro-opposition El Nacional newspaper, via Twitter.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-workers-idUSKCN0XN2YZ

[sidd]

"While the greed of capitalism may be driving the rate of climate change, this example of socialist incompetence ... "

I submit that Venezuela's predicament is, in large part, due to capitalist greed.

[AbruptSLR]

"While the greed of capitalism may be driving the rate of climate change, this example of socialist incompetence ... "

I submit that Venezuela's predicament is, in large part, due to capitalist greed.

While it would be better if capitalist greed did not facilitate the high rate of current climate change, communist China and the old Soviet Union had something to do with it as well.  So until humans figure-out how to stop climate change from occurring, all governments should take seriously their responsibility for helping their citizens adapt to the change we are experiencing now & that we will likely experience in the future.

[Sigmetnow]

Venezuela is running out of everything: Bread, sugar, toilet paper...

Venezuela's economy is spiraling into extreme recession. It is ironic given that the country sits on the world's largest proven oil reserves of oil. However Venezuela hasn't cut back from expensive government spending even as oil prices have lost half its value in the past two years.

An oppostion-led Congress is pushing for the ouster of President Nicolas Maduro and people have joined rallies and protests calling for his removal.

The country is under the spell of a drought, it's battling the Zika virus and people are struggling to get medicine in equipment-scarce hospitals.

http://money.cnn.com/2016/05/31/news/economy/venezuela-shortage/index.html

[sidd]

Not just Venezuela. All over South America we see the Monroe Doctrine ascendant, as savage as ever.

[TerryM]

Very diplomatically put sidd.     
Terry

[anti-revisionism]

It really is the age of capitalist absurdity when US allies Saudi Arabia pursue economic warfare through continued pumping of oil in an attempt to destabalise their global opponents - Iran, Russia, Venezuela while the future human civilisation teeters on the edge of a precipice measured in ppm and arctic ice extent 

Just waiting for when president Hillary/Trump announces an "intervention" in venezuela lol

[Sigmetnow]

Venezuela Trucks Food Directly to the Poorest as Chaos Spreads

Steeped in oil reserves, the leading edge of leftist populism, Venezuela is descending into chaos. While the opposition gathers signatures to oust the president, the food trucks are part of the latest attempts to hold onto the faith of a disillusioned populace, with the military now overseeing the nation’s food supply. Hunger -- real hunger -- is rearing its head in parts of a country that four decades ago was one of the 20 richest in the world.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-13/as-chaos-spreads-venezuela-trucks-food-directly-to-the-poorest