Dominican Republic energy chief vows to end 40 years of blackouts

windeguy

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I do think this belongs in the Clown Bin comedy forum:

Dominican Republic energy chief vows to end 40 years of blackouts

Santo Domingo.- The CEO of Dominican Republic’s State-owned Electric Utility (CDEEE) on Tuesday said the energy sector supplies 84.8 percent of the demand, and vowed to solve the nagging crisis in three years.

Ruben Jimenez Bichara’s promise continues the tradition of his predecessors who’ve predicted a definitive fix of the country’s historic blackouts, relentless during the last 40 years.

“What must be done is what’s being said will be done,” he said.

He said the country’s energy system must be restored to provide efficient, stable and feasible electricity for all people who’ve long suffered the situation.

The official pledged concrete and specific results for the national energy problem, after president Danilo Medina’s third year in office, and will “work hard” to achieve significant advances.

“We have new plants, generating cheap and abundant power for the population,” Jimenez added, speaking after a mass to mark the 14th anniversary of the electricity distributor, Edesur.

Source: DT
 

Ringo

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I think this belongs in the Comedy forum:

Dominican Republic energy chief vows to end 40 years of blackouts



Source: DT

I saw this earlier and waited for you wg. ROFL... and insulted that anyone would make such a statement. But... here we are? Show time again with such non-sense. How long will the people swallow this stuff?
 

windeguy

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I saw this earlier and waited for you wg. ROFL... and insulted that anyone would make such a statement. But... here we are? Show time again with such non-sense. How long will the people swallow this stuff?

Rinse and repeat every time a "new guy" takes over. Same old song and dance.
 

Makinater

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A bit OT perhaps, but can anyone explain to me exactly why the power is cut at certain hours? Been here lots of times since -87, and never managed to understand what's up with los apagones. It can't be power shortage, since it would be easy to solve that problem by building more plants (and in any case, the power shortages wouldn't be so organized that they came at exact hours every day, year after year). Someone said that it's the power company's way of punishing people for stealing power, another person told me that it's the power suppliers that doesn't get enough pay from the power distributing company so they cut the electricity to different sectors at specified hours. Seems like everyone's got a theory, but no one knows for sure and can prove that their answer is actually the correct one.
 

Castle

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A bit OT perhaps, but can anyone explain to me exactly why the power is cut at certain hours? Been here lots of times since -87, and never managed to understand what's up with los apagones. It can't be power shortage, since it would be easy to solve that problem by building more plants (and in any case, the power shortages wouldn't be so organized that they came at exact hours every day, year after year). Someone said that it's the power company's way of punishing people for stealing power, another person told me that it's the power suppliers that doesn't get enough pay from the power distributing company so they cut the electricity to different sectors at specified hours. Seems like everyone's got a theory, but no one knows for sure and can prove that their answer is actually the correct one.


it is power shortage. Not because there aren't enough plants but because they are not producing enough. So, energy is served in rations. You haven't been given a straight answer because there isn't one. There are just too many factors that have stemmed from the original problems, that today it is a maze of problems not at all easy to fix.
Among the biggest problems would be:

- Power plants, by contract, are paid based on their capacity, not the amount of power they actually deliver. So a plant with the capacity to produce 200 MW is paid for that amount, even if they don't produce any W. Thanks, Balaguer.
- Electric frauds. Not only by poor people in barrios, but also by big corporations that doctor their meters to read a fraction of what they actually use.
- Oil-based power plants. Most plants in DR work on diesel or gas. As the price of these goods go up, the same amount amount of money can buy less, of course. Only recently have new coal plants started to work, let's see how that goes.

But, as I said, this in only the tip of the iceberg. The topic has been discussed several times here on DR1, so you might want to check the old threads about it.
 

Criss Colon

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"How Long" I can't say, BUT, I have heard the same thing since my first visit here in 1986!
Interestingly, all the Presidents have campaigned on the same promise.
Which is strange, because the shortage of power, as Castle says, is not due to a shortage of energy production, but due to DR politics.
Politicians are afraid, VERY AFRAID, to make everyone pay for what they consume!!!!
Aprox. 52% pay little, or nothing.
The government, at any given point in time, owes the electricity producers between 500, and 750, million US Dollars.
The producers have only one option, they stop producing!
The 52% who don't pay much anyway, start to "Strike", and burn tires in the streets, the government pay 100 million of their debt, and the power flows again.
Not very well, but some.
They price will increase no matter what, because those few who pay, must make up for those who don't.
The DR government, subsidizes the power bill to the tune of a Billion US dollars a year.
Think of how much more money they would available to steal, if they made everyone pay.
My "Share" of the costs this month should be about 20,000 pesos, I'll let you know.
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zoomzx11

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you can fool some of the people some of the time................................................. Anyone been here more than a few weeks
pays no attention to this sort of nonsense. Learn to read by candlelight.
 

suarezn

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While I don't believe this issue will be fully solved within the next 10, 15 or maybe even 30 years to his credit this guy Bichara is actually working hard and being relatively transparent as compared to others. He was at 'El Gobierno de La Manana" the other day and laid everything out and let me tell you the situation is dire, so I'm not sure HOW he plans to solve it in 3 years.

I lost all faith when even Celso (an accomplished businessman without any political motivations) couldn't solve it or even improve it.

On a good note we finally have three neighborhoods in Cotui with 24x7 power (Well they're supposed to be anyway)...

The silver lining to all of this is that if there's ever a natural disaster Dominicans are well prepared for it as they're used to living without power and everyone has their own independent source of water and power.
 

Ringo

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Energy deficit causing blackouts

http://www.dominicantoday.com/dr/economy/2013/8/27/48764/Energy-deficit-causing-blackouts

Source: elnuevodiario.com.do

Santo Domingo.- The energy supply deficit in the last few days has caused a reduction in generation, leading to a situation where the distribution companies cannot meet demand, according to the Dominican State Electricity Corporation yesterday.

The CDEEE said that at noon yesterday the grid had 1,666 megawatts in operation, to supply a demand of 2,216 megawatts, which means it could only supply 75% of total demand.

Of the total energy served, 276.5 megawatts came from the hydroelectric plants and the rest (1,389.5) came from the other generators.

The reduction is due to the exit of several plants due to breakdowns, affecting the Los Mina V and VI and Itabo I generators, as well as problems linked to the cost of supplying fuel to the three Cogentrix units.
 

mountainannie

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ah..so that explains the blackouts over the last few weekends here in Gazcue! Really I have never experienced this before. Six hour, eight hours without power. In the 8 years before, never really more than 3 hours.

Of course I have no idea if those generators are linked to my sector.. or have anything to do with my house.

So far it is not enoough to spend the money on an invertor.. which DV8 says will be about $1000.....
 

Criss Colon

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My "Share" of the EDESUR budget this month was ONLY 19,000 pesos!!!
That's about 3,000 pesos more than last month.
I have been paying "Twice" a lot more this month.
WHY?
Because when you use your invertor 8 to 12 hours a day, when the power comes back, you are paying for THAT usage, PLUS, to recharge you now dead, or almost dead batteries at the same time!!!!
The more your power is "OFF", the more you pay when it comes back on.
Invertors are only about 75, or 80 % efficient.
The "Dominican State Electricity Corporation" is just doing the Governmental version of , "No Fui Yo"!!!!!
For 27 years, I have seen them ALWAYS blame the "Generators".
The real reason that there is no power, is that the "Corporation" is always 600,700,or even 800 Million US Dollars behind in paying the "Generators"!
The ONLY way that they can force the government to pay, is shut down their generators.
When the people get "PI$$ED" off enough, and start marching, and burning tires in the streets, they make a partial payment of 200, or 300 million dollars.
Then after 3, or 4 months, they repeat the "Above"!
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Ringo

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I feel your pain Chris. Not really.

We went from over $20K to around $3K per month. We Love our solar!
That's a saving of.... DP $204,000. this last year = USD $4,700.

AE has a whole system for sale and her price looks good. :)

"The reduction is due to the exit of several plants due to breakdowns, affecting the Los Mina V and VI and Itabo I generators, as well as problems linked to the cost of supplying fuel to the three Cogentrix units."

Bolding mine.
 
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BSyCvu8CYAAOFf0.jpg
 

Castle

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Of course I have no idea if those generators are linked to my sector.. or have anything to do with my house.

Oh, most generators are simply contributors to the grid. Distributors (Edesur, Edeeste, etc) get to decide who gets the blackout and for how long. Usually when there are technical problems involved, they just re-distribute the available power the best they can.

If you live alone, you can get a good inverter with 2 batteries for us$500 or less. Batteries drive the price up, but with two you can cover your usual 3-hour blackouts
 

mountainannie

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Castle .. I think that the issue was starting with a smaller unit or larger one.. thinking that things might well.. get worse rather than better? in which case one could not add on infinitely to a small unit but would have to scrap the $500 investment and start from scratch so better to go big in the beginning..

maybe that is the logic behind buying an SUV? that the roads will deteriorate to potholes?
 

Ringo

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Oh, most generators are simply contributors to the grid. Distributors (Edesur, Edeeste, etc) get to decide who gets the blackout and for how long. Usually when there are technical problems involved, they just re-distribute the available power the best they can.

If you live alone, you can get a good inverter with 2 batteries for us$500 or less. Batteries drive the price up, but with two you can cover your usual 3-hour blackouts

Can be done BUT as CC and others point out, your electric bill goes way up to recharge those batteries.

IMO. If you are in a secure place with security that does not require power, candles or an oil lamp work fine for 3 hours at night or just use the light from your portable book device to light your way while you read. :)
 

Castle

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MA, a bigger inverter won't give you more hours of power, more batteries will. A bigger inverter will allow you to operate appliances with higher consumption rate (watts) or more appliances together. That's why I think that if you live alone you can use so many appliances at the same time, so 2 batteries should be enough to get by a typical 3-hour blackout with a fan, a tv and a couple of light bulbs. Computers do kill the batteries, though.

On the other hand, batteries are of course perishable. So, if by the time they go bad you decide you need more, you can just get 4 batteries while keeping the same inverter.