Brazil plans to encourage lower energy use amid drought

Brazil on Wednesday said it was looking at rolling out measures next month to incentivize consumers to use less energy, as the worst drought in nearly a century hits power generation, fans inflation and hurts agribusinesses.

"The idea of the program is to reward consumers who make an effort to reduce the load and contribute to increasing safety and reducing the cost of generation," Brazil's electric energy secretary Christiano Vieira said at a press conference.

Earlier on Wednesday, Reuters reported that the measures aim to lower the country's electrical load by 10%, and reduce demands on the system by 7,000 megawatts to avoid energy rationing, according to a source.

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