Football-crazy Venezuelans can thank their collective passion for getting the lights and TV sets turned back on in their homes. On Thursday, their president Hugo Chavez , citing Friday's start of the football as one of the reasons. "We are now coming off our energy diet," Mr Chavez said on national television. During a televised meeting with energy officials, he said the decision was due to a "significant improvement" in water supply to the , a hydroelectric complex on the Orinoco River that produces 70 per cent of Venezuela's electricity. The rotating power cuts had also had a "negative effect on the population", the president conceded. That was not the song Mr Chavez sang just two days earlier, when he for another two months on the grounds that the country was still suffering the effects of its worst drought in a century. "To reach the objectives established for the electricity sector immediately, it is necessary to extend the whole of the extraordinary and special measure dictated in the framework of the current emergency declaration," said a decree published in Venezuela's official gazette. Miguel Lara, the former head of the country's electricity agency, said the government had "no choice" but to extend electricity rationing until August, while it worked to shore up Venezuela's inadequate power system and waited for seasonal rains to refill the Guri reservoir. Rolling power cuts affecting most parts of Venezuela outside Caracas, the capital, were instituted in February. Businesses and factories were ordered to cut power consumption by 20 per cent or face stiff fines. Shopping malls were required to open late and close early. Football matches were from evenings to afternoons to avoid using stadium lights. As a result, Venezuela's economy in the first quarter of this year instead of rebounding as the global recovery gathered steam elsewhere in the developing world. Economists predict that for the full year, the country's economy will shrink for the second year in a row. Critics of Mr Chavez said years of under-investment in Venezuela's state-run energy sector precipitated the power crisis. To turn the situation around, the government is building new thermoelectric plants to be fueled from Venezuela's vast stores of oil and gas. It has installed more than 1.1 gigawatts of new power capacity this year, boosting the total generating capacity connected to the national grid to 25gw. Venezuela's oil developments and refineries have dedicated power facilities, not connected to the grid, so were unaffected by power rationing. Venezuela, a founding member of OPEC, last year signed multibillion-dollar agreements with China and Russia to develop . It has also opened in a reversal of earlier moves to nationalise the oil sector. A huge gasfield was last year off Venezuela's coast, and is also slated for development. The South American country's push to build more thermal power plants is part of a trend throughout the developing world that will see more fossil fuel consumed for electricity generation in coming years, swamping efforts in the developed world to switch to lower carbon power sources. But if there is to be no green revolution in Venezuela, neither will there be a political one if Mr Chavez can help it. The populist president, who faces a crucial election in September, is savvy enough to realise that his grip on power would be tested if he pulled the plug on World Cup broadcasts. Venezuela's national football squad has never qualified to compete in the World Cup, but has dramatically in recent years. That could be enough to keep the nation's football fans safely glued to their TV screens instead of demonstrating out on the streets.