Nueva Esparta officials investigate Seneca blackouts

Venezuelan Nueva Esparta state legislators toured the facilities of local power utility Seneca over the weekend, as part of a fact finding mission that could lead to Seneca's transmission, distribution and generation contract being revoked, newspaper La Hora reported. During the tour, state legislator Gonzalo España, a member of President Hugo Chávez's ruling party, presented Seneca officials with his grievances about frequent blackouts, which they promised to fix. Seneca officials told España that power cuts in November and December last year happened because those are the high-season months in the resort island of Margarita, which Seneca serves. According to Seneca, "Generation is better now," España told BNamericas. However, the state legislature has not abandoned its plan of calling a statewide referendum to revoke Seneca's contract on the grounds that it provides an inefficient service. "No, that plan has not been abandoned, we are still preparing a report," España said, adding that once the report is completed the state legislature will decide whether to call for the vote. Inhabitants of the state will be asked if they are happy with the service Seneca provides, with the idea of eventually taking the contract away from Seneca and awarding it to a different company. The new company could be mixed capital, meaning state and private. Seneca buys about 60MW from state power company Cadafe and generates another 130MW itself. US-based CMS Energy (NYSE: CMS) owns Seneca. During a partial experiment with privatization in the 1990s, CMS Energy received two concessions from the Rafael Caldera administration, one for exclusive distribution in Nueva Esparta state for 50 years, and the other for exclusive power generation for 10 years.