Quoting Electricity prices - KW-HR, not KW/HR

If you really want to get confused over electricity and their bills, how about the facturas sent to Dominican businesses. It took me a really long time to truly understand how much AES and the gobierno truly screw business and industry in the DR.

They add a factor they call "Potencia". The bill is based on your highest usage for one month in the previous 12 months. That figure establishes the MIMIMUM amount you will be billed for, and expected to PAY. (Sounds fishy doesn't it?)

For example, if I used RD$6000 worth of electricity in January 2002. In November 2002, I use RD$2000 of electricity because things are slow. That doesn't mean that things are slow for AES. That means that I then get a bill for RD$2000 for electricity used, and an additional $4000 tacked on for "Potencia" and the bill is still for a total of RD$6000!

What a racket. All of a sudden, you are not being billed the equivalent of US$0.14 a KWhr, you are paying more like US$0.40 a Kwhr for the power you actually USED.

They also establish a company's basic rate based on the potencial use as if you turn on every single electrically powered machine on at once, and they also examine the wiring in the business for the total of the circuit breakers amperage.

In the DR, electricity is NOT sold on what is consumed and what is measured in quantity- it is sold for what they think they can use the law to force someone to pay for, whether they actually used it, or what they thought you SHOULD have used.

There is absolutely no motivation to conserve electricity if you know that your usage will not exceed the previous higher month, thereby creating an even worse situation if you choose to waste the power you will still end up paying for, used or unused.

peak demand

Power companies do this because peak consumption is what the power companies should satisfy. During the summer months here in the NY/NJ when it is very hot and humid, the generators are at 90%. This is very high. Most of the time they are below that and in the middle of the night when no air conditioning is on, the comsumption rate is much lower. The system should be designed to satisfy peak load and that is expensive. It makes sense that the higher end consumers would pay a high rate if the system must be designed to meet their needs.

If prices are too high, maybe some companies will find it cheaper to set up a mini-grid and produce their own electricity.

I think when all the dust settles, you will find that most families will not be able to afford their monthly electric bills either.

Sorry to disagree with you Jim, but you do not have the right story on billing for electricity for DR industrial customers....

I am not paying an "estimated" bill. The meter reader comes every month, reads the bill, has me sign off on it, and that's the amount I am billed for, and pay for.

For industrial companies, the MINIMUM amount of KwHr we are billed for is equal to the HIGHEST number of KwHr used in a one month period, within the prior 12 months. If you use less Kwhr's in one month, the difference is BILLED as Potencia. This portion of the bill averages about 50% of my actual energy use per month.

Before everyone goes jumping off saying that "of course, industrial companies should pay more," I will bet that my "industrial" company (at an average of 1000 Kwhr per month usage), uses less energy than a lot of DR1 readers do in their homes , as long as their meters are accurate.

It just doesn't pay for one to try to conserve anything in this country, due to the way the laws are written and the people writing them.

PS- our planta runs , on average, 12 hours a day , most days of the week, and we pay for that too.