DR1 Daily News - Dominican Republic

According to multiple sources, the nearly country-wide blackout cost the Dominican Republic about US$200 million in lost goods and services. Commerce came to a halt, traffic got all tangled up, and basic services were stymied for many hours.

There are at least two ways to measure just how much money the blackouts cost. They make for interesting reading. One of the ways is to calculate the Cost of Energy Loss which is defined as the economic harm the nation’s economy suffers for each megawatt hour of energy not supplied.

“Experts” told the El Caribe newspaper that in an emerging economy such as ours, the cost per MWh is between US$8000 and US$20,000. Given the fact that during the blackout last week at least 25,000MWh were lost, the Cost of Energy Loss was easily US$200,000,000.

Another way to figure out the losses is to use the nation’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product) and the...