# Venezuela’s power system under pressure as officials admit they need time to meet rising demand

*Friday, September 25, 2026 at 4:07 AM UTC — Hamer Intelligence Services Desk*

**Published**: 2026-09-25T04:07:32.210Z (2h ago)
**Category**: markets | **Region**: Latin America
**Importance**: 7/10
**Sources**: OSINT
**Permalink**: https://hamerintel.com/data/articles/18753.md
**Source**: https://hamerintel.com/summaries

---

**Deck**: Venezuela’s state power company says it will take time to cover the country’s electricity demand, which officials describe as the highest since 2017. President Delcy Rodríguez has returned from New York and gone straight to the national dispatch center in Caracas to review the situation, underscoring concern over the grid’s ability to cope.

Venezuelan authorities are warning that the country’s electricity system is struggling to keep up with resurgent demand, raising the risk of renewed outages in a grid many citizens already see as fragile.

Juan Crisóstomo Fernández, president of state utility Corpoelec, said this week that the company will need time to cover nationwide electricity demand. He described current demand as having reached a level not seen since 2017. Fernández spoke at a press conference in Zulia state, a region that has suffered some of the country’s worst blackouts.

Separately, President Delcy Rodríguez reviewed the situation at the National Electric Dispatch Center in Caracas. Local reports say she noted that electricity demand has climbed above levels last recorded in 2017.

For households, the prospect of a strained grid is immediately practical: whether lights stay on, food remains refrigerated, and medical equipment keeps running without relying entirely on backup generators. Years of intermittent service and major nationwide blackouts have already eroded public confidence.

Businesses face similar pressures. Unplanned power cuts damage equipment and stock, disrupt production, and force factories, shops, and service providers to turn to costly alternative supplies.

Officials have not laid out detailed rationing plans or a specific timetable for stabilizing the system. Their public comments, however, acknowledge a gap between what consumers are trying to draw and what the grid can reliably deliver.

Signals to watch now include any announced maintenance or emergency generation projects, as well as reports from cities and hard‑hit states like Zulia on the frequency and duration of outages. Those will show whether Venezuela’s power system can handle current demand or whether it is sliding back toward more severe instability.