Pre-Paid Electric Meters

mido

Bronze
May 18, 2002
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The power company in Bavaro is doing this for quite while now with lots of success! 99.9 % percent of the users in Bavaro Punta Cana pay for their power.
 

Givadogahome

Silver
Sep 27, 2011
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I don't know if this will work. About 80+% of the entire East side don't pay for Electricity and so they will find a way of bypassing it. The small barrio on JCont / Churchill will be a good trial as it isn't too big and it isn't massively crazy there, along with a big police presence in the area, but I dunno...
It is a good idea, but purely because people have lived for so long without paying bills I can't see it being easily resolved, people know how and so will find a way to bypass bills.
 

AlterEgo

Administrator
Staff member
Jan 9, 2009
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South Coast
I know that area well - it's actually north of that intersection on the east side of the street, going up the hill. Will be very interesting to see how this works. I've personally seen illegal hookups being connected there using telephone wire. Not a lot of people actually paying for electric there, IMO.
 

suarezn

Gold
Feb 3, 2002
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While this should probably be part of the "long term" solution and in theory it should work perfectly, there's one small flaw..how do you prevent people from just hooking up to the main line? It's is what they do now. Someone just climbs up a post, peels away the insulation of the cable and hooks in one or several lines. The companies come in from time to time and confiscates all the cables of the illegal connections and literally they haven't left the neighborhood, when everyone is connected back up.

The one upside I do see to this is that hopefully now I won't get charged for blackout time.
 

Givadogahome

Silver
Sep 27, 2011
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In reality the problem is not being attacked from the right direction, this needs to come about once people have been educated that electric is not free, and how important it is to everyone else that EVERYONE pays. When you have areas where literally thousands of homes, colmados and shops are not paying for electric then they live in a world where electric has never been paid for before, no one pays for electricity. Kids grow up not even understanding that you need to pay for electric, electric goes off just because it is part of the disfuctional land they live in, I don't think the connection is made (excuse the pun), just accepted.
But where do you start to educate a nation on something that is going to cost them money many don't have. On the other hand, I know of homes that don't need to rob lecy but do because of where they live, it is the norm.

I think meters need to be introduced down the line once progress has been made.
 

jrjrth

Bronze
Mar 24, 2011
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~Perhaps its time for them to consider all underground utilities....harder for the hackers to hack into!! It just so amazes me that more are not killed for tapping into live lines!!
 

zoomzx11

Gold
Jan 21, 2006
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Agree with "dog" here. So many Dominicans have always had free electricity that they would never pay for it. My neighbor is a lawyer and has plenty of money yet he is the biggest electrical thief in the neighborhood. He has been caught dozens of times and he just finds another way to connect.
There are entire towns in the DR where no one has ever paid. I have never seen a residential meter in Villa Altagrassia. Even if there were pre-paid meters installed most residents cannot afford to pay the absurdly high prices for electricity.
There does not seem to be a solution.
 

zoomzx11

Gold
Jan 21, 2006
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As far as underground utilities goes I think most Dominicans know how to use a shovel.
It might slow them up a little. Many people in this country are electrocuted stealing electricity. Does not stop anyone.
 

Givadogahome

Silver
Sep 27, 2011
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~Perhaps its time for them to consider all underground utilities....harder for the hackers to hack into!! It just so amazes me that more are not killed for tapping into live lines!!

Hmm, our cousin was killed last year after walking around a corner into a dangling live wire, head height and touched his head and killed him. The aftermath of a half arsed job come undone.
I'd also not believe all these stories you hear when guys tell you they were maimed by an accident on a moto. Yes most of them have been disabled in moto accidents, but that is the respected excuse on the street when someone has been shocked also. You see quite a few with dead limbs, legs or arms.
 

jrjrth

Bronze
Mar 24, 2011
782
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Hmm, our cousin was killed last year after walking around a corner into a dangling live wire, head height and touched his head and killed him. The aftermath of a half arsed job come undone.
I'd also not believe all these stories you hear when guys tell you they were maimed by an accident on a moto. Yes most of them have been disabled in moto accidents, but that is the respected excuse on the street when someone has been shocked also. You see quite a few with dead limbs, legs or arms.

I can tell you that I have seen them doing it, one time, two were up the concrete pole, "With what I would call Spagetti In the Sky"....holding several wires, joking with each other..."No you do it, No you do it...they're freakin nuts, especially with the humidity and how electricity can jump...hate even walking around or near these poles.
BTW sorry to hear about your cousin...
 
Feb 7, 2007
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~Perhaps its time for them to consider all underground utilities....harder for the hackers to hack into!! It just so amazes me that more are not killed for tapping into live lines!!

Haha...in the DR they will do it reversed. celzo marranzini from CDEE was compalining that some upscale residentail sector was stealing electricity ...the agreement reached was that the sector will improve its "legality" and that CDEE will HELP TO PAY to bring underground cables from down below to the ground and install them in the air.... Now how's that!