Wind Power in Samana

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aegap

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Windpower for Samana
Last week, the town of Las Galeras in Samana became the first part of the DR to benefit from clean electricity generated by wind power, according to Jose Oscar Orsini, president of Luz y Fuerza de Las Terrenas, C. por A. power company. The operation of the country's first commercial wind-powered generator, a 60KW generator, will reduce electricity prices by 5-8% for consumers in Las Galeras. The company plans to sell the kWh for US$0.15 and US$0.17.
Luz y Fuerza de Las Terrenas, C. por A. has the concession for power distribution in the north and east of the Samana Peninsula. It purchases the power from Generadora Eolica de Las Galeras, S.A., presided by Jaime Fernandez.
The Las Galeras wind park is located on a plain at Las Guzumas, Cabo Samana, where the winds are very favorable. A coastal shelf formed by a marble mine at 800 feet dropping down to the sea creates a kind of Venturi air flow effect that accelerates the force of the winds.
The generator can currently provide 15% of the power used in the beach town of Las Galeras. Generadora Eolica de Las Galeras, S.A. plans to install a wind park with the capacity to generate 1,200KW to supply 20% of the north and eastern areas of the Samana peninsula. The park has the capacity for three 275KW and four 60KW generators when the Las Galeras and Las Terrenas systems are interconnected. The first four 60KWs will be installed by June 2008 and plans are for the system to be interconnected by the end of 2008. The wind park requires a US$1.5 million investment, of which US$500,000 has been invested in the first system now in operation.
The site was chosen 10 years ago when USAID financed a study on wind power potential in the Dominican Republic, which was carried out by National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NREC) of the United States.
 
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SamanaJon

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Wind Power Cheaper for LyF Las Galeras Customers

aegap said:
molino2bviento2borsinixb5.jpg
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Windpower for Samana
, a 60KW generator, will reduce electricity prices by 5-8% for consumers in Las Galeras. The company plans to sell the kWh for US$0.15 and US$0.17.

The site was chosen 10 years ago when USAID financed a study on wind power potential in the Dominican Republic, which was carried out by National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NREC) of the United States.
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The above sounds like an ad, a very nice ad. I am a customer and pay $13.5 pesos/kWh on my last bill. A far cry from the US $0.17 proposed (nowhere near an 8% reduction). This is great news, but can't figure how LyF operates and funds projects? Where do NREL, NRECA, and US Aid figure into their expansion plans? Do they aid LyF on the ecomonic line? Why do we, customers have to buy NRECA transformers from LyF to get service? Just curious??? I for one, would like Mr. Orsini to address a public forum and answer some questions...;)
 
Squat

Squat

Tropical geek in Las Terrenas
Jan 1, 2002
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Somehow I feel something is fishy in this announcement... Just as the previous poster was saying, we (Luz&Fuerza customers) pay the highest bill of the island, maybe the highest of the continent... The article mentions 0.17US$ for a KWh... I pay 12.75RD$, which would be roughly 0.40US$...

Maybe it was all a big secret, and wind power will show up to reduce our bills, but I have a hard time believing it, as I was told (the last time I complained at L&F) that 3 out of 4 plantas were still running on gasoil. They could not invest to upgrade them to the other fuel that is more efficient and would reduce our bill...
 
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Andy B

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Yeah, the math didn't add up for me either. I too question the supposed savings. We are paying about the same as Samana Jon and I hear the same song that they can't afford to make improvements that would save money. They are, however, stringing miles of new wire all around this end of the peninsula. Wonder where the money is coming from to do this? Also, I heard there is supposed to be some sort of meeting between LyF and it's customers this weekend here in Las Galeras.
 
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Dolores1

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The windpower story is from dr1 daily news 31 August edition. DR1 Daily News does not post advertisements in its text. So, it was not an ad.
The story came from a lead provided by a friend on the new development in Las Galeras, that we followed up with Orsini to get more details.

It was included to show that there is work advanced on installing non-polluting energy generators.

BTW, I sent Mr. Orsini this thread. He is welcome to use this thread to communicate with his customers.
 
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Squat

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Dolores said:
BTW, I sent Mr. Orsini this thread. He is welcome to use this thread to communicate with his customers.
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Thanks Dolores... I wish Mr. Orsini would come clean with the difference between his announcements and what his employees tell customers when they complain about paying the highest rates of the whole island.
Charging 3 times the regular price for the KWh is simply dishonest !
 
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GALK

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It is time that someone begins to invest in alternative energy, but the drop of the price of KWH mentioned obove seems far to much.

I always thought that EDESUR is expensive as I pay 8.57 RD$/KWh above 700KWH, what is their most expensive rate.
Obviously you in Samana you pay nearly double.
The 13.5 RD$ you pay from the first KWh onwards?
EDESUR starts with 3.12 RD$ up to 7.0RD$ below 700KWh.
 
Squat

Squat

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GALK said:
The 13.5 RD$ you pay from the first KWh onwards?
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I pay 12.75RD$, because I don't use 200KWh per month (I use a 175 average). If I would consume anything above 200KWh per month, I would pay 13.75RD$ per KWh. I am a Luz&Fuerza customer from Las Terrenas.

I resent the announcement published in the DR1 news as being completely hypocritical because I have been told by Luz&Fuerza that they couldn't afford to invest into more "bunker" (cheaper fuel) planta. Right now in Las Terrenas, they have 4 plantas, 1 runs with "bunker" fuel, and the 3 others runs with gasoil. Gasoil is much more expensive than "bunker" fuel.

I believe someone is lying at Luz&Fuerza, and I would like Mr.Orsini to post here and explain himself.

-How can they invest so much money on wind generator and forget about a simple investment that could lower considerably their customers bill ???
 
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SamanaJon

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Squat said:
I resent the announcement published in the DR1 news as being completely hypocritical

Squat, I concur. My feeling exactly! DR1 publishing such an article as news, in not totally responsible. They should do a bit of investigating before publishing this type of news, or at least quote the source of the information published. It can be a bit misleading for those who don't know the reality of the situation.

Thanks Dolores for the info.

Yes GALK.. my most recent bill was calculated from the first kWh used, that is how LyF calculates all bills..:

665 kWh x $13.5/kWh = $8,977.50 pesos.

I am still waiting for LyF to install the street lamp I purchased (which the said they would install, if I bought it). It has been in my garage for almost 4 months now.
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Dolores1

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Mr. Orsini is the best person to explain... but from what I read, Luz y Fuerza is the electricity distributor, not the owner of the wind park. Thus, another company made the investment. I do not know if Luz y Fuerza or Mr. Orsini is an investor in Generadora Eolica de Las Galeras, S.A., the generator company.

Also, we give the source of the information, Mr. Orsini.
 
Squat

Squat

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Dolores said:
Mr. Orsini is the best person to explain... but from what I read, Luz y Fuerza is the electricity distributor, not the owner of the wind park. Thus, another company made the investment. I do not know if Luz y Fuerza or Mr. Orsini is an investor in Generadora Eolica de Las Galeras, S.A., the generator company.

Also, we give the source of the information, Mr. Orsini.
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In all fairness, another piece of news correcting this one should be available on DR1's Monday news... It is really unfair that such an abusive company as Luz&Fuerza gets free advertising in a worldwide renown website such as DR1 !

Let me repeat it again : Luz&Fuerza is charging 3 times the regular rates to its customers because they have the monopoly ! This is not honest !

I feel they don't deserve to be shown as environment friendly when they are ripping off their customers, especially for free !

I refer you all to that thread : http://www.dr1.com/forums/living/65918-power-costs-2.html
where it has been proven that it is indeed cheaper to pay 3 or 4 pesos per KWh and have a good inverter as backup than being ripped off by Luz&Fuerza. In this thread I described my power consumption, trying to save as much as I can. On the other hand, Mr.Orsini has the cynicism to raise his rates while at the same time announcing this whole wind power thing...
 
Squat

Squat

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I really hope Mr.Orsini doesn't remain silent ! He has to post in this thread, now that we all know he is reading it, because Dolores sent it to him !

Come on, tell us the truth !
 
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GALK

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Squat said:
I pay 12.75RD$, because I don't use 200KWh per month (I use a 175 average). If I would consume anything above 200KWh per month, I would pay 13.75RD$ per KWh. I am a Luz&Fuerza customer from Las Terrenas.

I resent the announcement published in the DR1 news as being completely hypocritical because I have been told by Luz&Fuerza that they couldn't afford to invest into more "bunker" (cheaper fuel) planta. Right now in Las Terrenas, they have 4 plantas, 1 runs with "bunker" fuel, and the 3 others runs with gasoil. Gasoil is much more expensive than "bunker" fuel.

I believe someone is lying at Luz&Fuerza, and I would like Mr.Orsini to post here and explain himself.

-How can they invest so much money on wind generator and forget about a simple investment that could lower considerably their customers bill ???
Click to expand...

Just for reference: With EDESUR you would pay 175Kwh x 3.12RD$ = 546RD$.
L&F charge you four times. They must make a lot of profit as even EDESUR reports profit and they charge less.
 
Squat

Squat

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GALK said:
Just for reference: With EDESUR you would pay 175Kwh x 3.12RD$ = 546RD$.
L&F charge you four times. They must make a lot of profit as even EDESUR reports profit and they charge less.
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FYI, I used to be charged 10.75RD$ until July 2007, when the rate went up to 12.75RD$/KWh. The reason that was given to me was that gasoil is up, so power is up. The person in charge told me that it would cost 300 millions of RD$ to change their 3 gasoil plantas to 3 "bunker" plantas. He then told me Luz&Fuerza doesn't have that kind of money.
 
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SamanaJon

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IC Electrical Generators vs Wind Turbines

Well LyF recently purchased a new 600 kw (I think) for Las Galeras. They could have made plans to purcahse a HFO (heavy fuel oil) buring plant instead. I owuld think that they will soon need at a least 1.0 mw as thigs grow in the area. I have been to the Las Galeras Plant site, and it leaves much to be desired. Surely they are investing their money elsewhere. They don't even have a 24 hour number to report outages.

A 60 kw wind turbine will not put a dent in the overall production cost of electricty for the Las Galeras operation. They will need to have 3x that much on-line, inorder to actually begin passing along any saving to customers. That may be happening sometime next year, maybe....:tired:
 
Squat

Squat

Tropical geek in Las Terrenas
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I wanted to give a bit of feedback as well, since I am one of the heaviest complainer.

I received my power bill this morning, and it is noticeable that Luz&Fuerza lowered a bit their rates. In my case, since I use less than 200 KWh/month, I now pay 11.75RD$/KWh (from 12.75 last month).

I am wondering if Mr.Orsini is finally seeing the light... I am not sure...

On the other hand, I had an information about a private Spanish power company operating in Hato Mayor, and charging only 6.5RD$/KWh (that would be around 0.21US$). I am told this company had to install everything from scratch.

That means it is possible.

One more thing about our region, the Saman? Peninsula : it grows really fast ! In Las Terrenas, it seems that there's a new project starting every 5 minutes ! So if Luz&Fuerza doesn't follow this rhythm of development, some day, another company will pay whoever is in charge to get a permit to distribute electricity as well, and will drive Mr.Orsini to bankrupt, back to the Capital !
 
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aegap

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SamanaJon said:
A 60 kw wind turbine will not put a dent in the overall production cost of electricty for the Las Galeras operation. They will need to have 3x that much on-line, inorder to actually begin passing along any saving to customers. That may be happening sometime next year, maybe....:tired:
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The low rate quoted by DR1 is probably the whosale rate at which LyF buys the power from the people running the wind farm.
 
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SamanaJon

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Any Response?

Dolores said:
Mr. Orsini is the best person to explain... but from what I read, Luz y Fuerza is the electricity distributor, not the owner of the wind park. Thus, another company made the investment. I do not know if Luz y Fuerza or Mr. Orsini is an investor in Generadora Eolica de Las Galeras, S.A., the generator company.

Also, we give the source of the information, Mr. Orsini.
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I have yet to hear if LyF has addressed anyones concerns as to the topic. Anyone hear anything? I have called the main office in the Colonial Zone, but Mr. Orsini was not available. Updates on Wind Power in the DR? I know a large project (20mw) was shot down in Bavaro earlier 2007, when Rolando Bunster of CEPM, tried to build a Wind Farm.:tired:
 
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Dolores1

DR1
May 3, 2000
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Orsini wrote to me at dr1, replying to your posts, but he wrote in Spanish, so I asked him to send me the response in English. He said he would have it translated. Once I get it, I will post it here. His response was complete with charts and news on what's coming.
 
Squat

Squat

Tropical geek in Las Terrenas
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Dolores said:
Orsini wrote to me at dr1, replying to your posts, but he wrote in Spanish, so I asked him to send me the response in English. He said he would have it translated. Once I get it, I will post it here. His response was complete with charts and news on what's coming.
Click to expand...
Please feel free to publish it in Spanish, as most of us read this language. You can always post it in English afterwards...
 
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