Venezuela is shifting its time zone forward 30 minutes, so there is half an hour more daylight in the evening when energy consumption peaks.

The announcement comes as the country suffers from a power shortage caused by drought. Water levels at Venezuela's main dam and hydroelectric plant in Guri have been reduced to near-critical levels.

The dam provides for about two-thirds of the nation's energy needs. After months of unscheduled outages, the government has announced several measures to tackle the crisis, including implementing programmed electricity rationing across the country, and reducing public sector workers' working time to two days.