Edenorte - it took 15 years to out wait them on 24/7 power

When I moved to the DR in 2003, I knew the power situation where I would live was not good. In the years of Hippolito it was incredibly bad. We tried to organize our neighbors to get a better situation of fewer blackouts, but to no avail. There were many days when we had 8 hours of electricity. I became an expert on batteries, inverters and generators.

Finally after 15 years, Edenorte has decided to upgrade our area to 24/7 power (such as that is in the DR anywhere.)

They are working on the multiple issues by putting in new power poles, new transformers, new wiring and new remote readable power meters. This is after 3 attempts by Edenorte officials trying to extort money from us for actually doing a job they were obliged to do. This is after being told by officials in three different offices that they would not give us 24/7 power over the past couple of months. They wanted us to pay for the improvements...

They finally gave in and are spending the money. Improvements should be completed within two weeks. That speed is possible only because they hired a contractor to do the work and he gets paid when he is done and they are good at doing the work.

It was not a pleasant wait for all those years.

Peterj said:

Felicidades....but...I am afraid they will increase the price per kWh pretty soon....

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There is always "something" here. The price is already very high compared to most of the world. I have no way to predict if the EDE's will change their rates.

Bob K said:

Congrats Mike, Remember it is 24/7 most of the time. Still periodic blackouts and the infamous and frustrating off/on/off/on that occurs on a regular basis and can go on for 10-20 minutes. Wrecks havoc on electronics that are not protected.

Bob K

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I won't change the system for back up that I have any time soon that I have lived with for the past 15 years with minor incidents along the way. I know about the realities of the power situation here all too well.

We have been fortunate to be in an area without major fluctuations in the voltage levels when power is on being just off the main highway in Cabarete.

drSix said:

I think you're better off with a generator if you're in a 24/7 zone. Less cost of maintenance, and the gen doesn't suck up electricity. Usually you only loose power during scheduled maintenance, and during bad ass storms. During bad ass storms, you're much better off with a generator.

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After a time goes by, I will make that decision to pull out the inverter and consider a generator as the only backup. Time will tell.

dv8 said:

my advice as someone in upgraded (few years ago) zone: keep your backup setup. we always had a 3.5 kwh inversor with 8 batteries and i insisted that we do not downgrade. the power rarely goes off where we live but we do get short blackouts for maintenance and of course when there is system failure (often when it rains like F or there are strong winds). and it's a blessing during hurricane season.

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This is the way I am leaning at the moment.

drSix said:

I always enjoyed the quiet, and being forced off the internet when the power went out for a short time. With a gen, if you NEED power, you've got it.

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I currently have both inverter systems and a generator. No need to dump either for now.