any end in sight to the power problem?

LA Woman

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Jan 7, 2004
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anybody have information on what's going on with the nationwide power problem?

I don't think businesses can continue to operate without power. The area I am living in has not had more than two hours of power in the last two days.

Let's hope the new president can rectify some of the problems that he has been left with quickly.

Thanks,
LA woman :squareeye
 

AZB

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Jan 2, 2002
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I haven't had more than 2 hours of sleep at any given night. It really sucks big time.
 

Rocky

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LA Woman said:
anybody have information on what's going on with the nationwide power problem?

I don't think businesses can continue to operate without power. The area I am living in has not had more than two hours of power in the last two days.

Let's hope the new president can rectify some of the problems that he has been left with quickly.

Thanks,
LA woman :squareeye
\
Hippo's not paying the bills and when Leonel takes over on the 16th of August, I guess it will take him few months to get it running somewhat back to normal.
 

quejeyoke

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Jun 20, 2004
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no end in sight untill the electric companies get the money the gov owes them for electricity. But since it was a priority of utmost urgency, and for the "modernization of the Dominican Armed forces", the gov decided to buy helicopters instead of facing the music and paying or making arrangements once again with the electric companies so they can get what they're owed and thus relieving this power outtage fiasco going on in such a beautiful island.
 

Brooke

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May 25, 2004
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AZB said:
I haven't had more than 2 hours of sleep at any given night. It really sucks big time.


I read about people moving to the DR who have lived in the States,
what do they think of the power outages?? Have the outages always been
this bad?? Are the tourist areas affected by the outages?? That would
be a big adjustment after living here. I don't get why people move there,
is it really that much better???
 

Dolores1

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May 3, 2000
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Tourist areas are least affected by the blackouts. Punta Cana does not feel them, because they are on a private power system, independent of the national grid, ditto for La Romana, Bayahibe and even Las Terrenas, Samana.

In 1990 we went through a similar crisis and survived. May I say the country shortly after entered into a decade of record growth for the Caribbean and Latin American region.

As a result of the 1990 crisis, most businesses in the DR are prepared for long blackouts. For example at dr1, our office building has a power plant, and our office has an inverter. In worse scenario, the inverter charges from the power plant.

This fact of businesses and many homes having considerable alternate power sources is why during and after Hurricane Georges life went on as usual for the large numbers that have alternate power. The problem is that today it is very expensive to run the power plants, given the high cost of fuel, and these plants are not set up for 12-20 hour blackouts a day. Also, today it is prohibitive to buy a power plant, and very very expensive to buy an inverter if your earnings are in RD$ and have not been indexed for inflation.

Around where we work and live at dr1, we have benefitted from 12 hour blackouts this week, which is pretty good. But we have had days of 20 hours of blackouts, too.

It's a money problem, and has to do with the priorities of the government. Power is not a priority for this government after it lost the election. The new government does not start until 16 August. A big cash payment has to be made to the power companies, and the cash is being assigned to other priorities.

I have no inside story on how the PLD government plans to deal with the issue. But the man who is in charge of electricity affairs during the government transition period, Radhames Segura is one of my heroes. The man was a champion coordinator of the emergency efforts after Hurricane Georges in 1998. So, I trust he has a plan and the power problems may be resolved within the next three months.

When will service be restored to normal levels -- or at least manageable levels of six hours of blackouts? Anyone's guess. I would say 10% probability in August, 30% probability in September, and 50% probability by November. For sure the power companies will reach some kind of agreement with the new government, although from what I have been reading from power expert Juan Luis Moreno (of the UASD electricity institute) from the way the system is set up, their yield is greater when there are blackouts. But one would suppose that is to a certain point. I don't know if the contracts of Cogentrix and Smith Enron, that allowed these companies to bill regardless of supplying power or not, have been changed -- those companies definitely earn more being shut down than generating.

Someone commented the other day at what a peaceful and relatively crime free country this is, demonstrated by all the blackouts which anywhere else would mean looting and increased crime. Here people just go about living...
 
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samiam

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Mar 5, 2003
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There is no money, no fuel, no spare parts and no interest in producing electricity. Lets face it, our system is designed to be defective and not work, so better get used to it! It might get better or worse at times, but it will never be reliable. If they wanted it to be reliable, they should have privatized the whole island under a vertically integrated platform, a company produces, distributes and sells its energy, just like in Bayahibe and Punta Cana.

So, don't hold you breath kids. The electricity problem in the DR will probably be solved around the year 2050, when we are invaded by aliens from planet Zorgon.
 

Hillbilly

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Jan 1, 2002
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While everything that Dolores is quite accurate-it always is

Let me add that there are other sides to this problem. It is the government's fault. They screwed the country when they paid off all the depositors of BanInter. That is a major and very key point. We all got screwed. Our pesos lost buying power, plain and simple.

Now understand this: The generators all sell electricity of , let's say 7? of a dollar per kilowatt. The electricity distributors-Ede Este, Ede Norte and Ede Sur all sell power at , let's say twice that price: 14? of a dollar. BUT their bills are in pesos!!!! When the value of the peso crashed, the electricity distributors were never able to adjust their invoices to keep up with the rapid inflation, and when they did bill at a current rate, everybody yelled so loud that the "Government" is another stupid move, re-purchesed the distributors Norte and Sur at terribly inflated prices and caused another cascade of events: People started saying; "Oh this belongs to the government, so I don't have to pay" or "I am a poor father of a family so I do not need to pay for my electricity" and so on and so forth. Collections that had hit 85% and 90% in some cases fell to less than 60% very quickly and stealing of electricity became the game of the day.

SO: We have pesos that cannot pay for the electricity the distributors have to purchase in dollars, we have people delaying payment or not paying at all (if they are PPH, they never pay!) and power companies facing ever increasing oil costs overseas, and continuing default on invoices. For example: EDE Norte "purchases about $25 million in electricity every month (if it is there to be "purchased") but they only collect between $12 and $14 million from their clients. That is a +/- $12 million deficit every month to the generators. WHo can keep that up?

Then there is the case of the government trying to keep on the good side of the "hot" barrios by trying to subsidize electricity so there are fewer prolonged blackouts in the most populated and politically dangerous areas. And this at a cost of around, what was it I read??? Like RD$600 million a month?? Something like that. No way they could keep it up, so they didn't.

And then you have the CDEEE which owns a few generation facilities and all of the transmission lines. They never get paid for what they do either, so maintenence is schitty at the very best and the hydroelectric plants are each and every one of them producing far, far less than they are capable of doing.

And not the last one by any but this post has to end soon, we have those excellent contracts engineered by Smith-Enron and Cogentrix in SPM. Those contracts were passed as laws and are unbreakable. They provide for payment for "installed capacity" in case the plants are shut down for any reason. Since the government hasn't been able to pay, nor the EDEs been able to pay, they shut down but still collect a ton of money--at least on the books. Some sources say that Carlos Morales Troncoso was the godfather for some of these and collects US$10k a month just from Cogentrix--might be rumor but is makes sense in this environment.

See why things are all screwed up??

HB :(:(:( but oh so :D:D:D with our little " plantica"
 
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NV_

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Aug 4, 2003
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Brooke said:
I read about people moving to the DR who have lived in the States,
what do they think of the power outages?? Have the outages always been
this bad?? Are the tourist areas affected by the outages?? That would
be a big adjustment after living here. I don't get why people move there,
is it really that much better???

Personally, the DR, is hell on earth for me. After 8 long years I still cringe everytime the power goes out and become furious everytime the power goes out in the middle of the night (which has been every night for the past week). I came here by choice (came to check out the med schools and met someone special) but have regretted stepping off that AA flight every day since.

Would love to pack up and go back to Florida but I dont believe in long distance relationships so i'm here until her U.S. residency visa comes through (which she had already applied for before meeting me).

The tourist areas (AI resorts and big hotels) are not affected by the blackouts.
 

Tom F.

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Jan 1, 2002
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Dolores & Hillbilly, great posts.

It is obvious that until services are paid for at all levels, the system will not be functional. I remember when Radames Segura was in charge from 96-00. Not much improvement in my opinion but hopefully they have learned from their mistakes. I bet they get things back to the normal 6 hours of apagones pretty quick and make Rocky happy. What would be amazing is if they could annouce when a blackout would happen like they do in other countries who can't meet demand.
 

KenoshaChris

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Jan 4, 2002
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When You Gotta Go You Gotta Go

I've only been back here in the States for two weeks. I'm told that at our condo developement, there's no electricity from 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. which coincidentially, and not to share my personal biological timeclock, is 2nd dump time for me. Then there's Isabel, the kids when they return from el campo and the niece. Whole lotta poopo and pee gonna be in that system by the time we can flush. The kids might be better off in el campo and I'm probably better off up here for now because when I need to poop, I need to flush. Trust me, everybody appreciates that. My real question is however, has anybody even talked about indicting this a$$wipe?

Little or no electricity. Poor potable water. Inflation at 66% in two to three years. Helicoptors with no fuel. Hospitals with no doctors. A mansion outside of Santo Domingo and another one in Jarabacoa. The electricical problem is no longer my problem even though I'm still president. Its only going to get worse. Venezuela is looking better again. For now though, I think I'll sit up here and watch what's developing. It isn't pretty. At least winter is still several months away and while well invested down there, options remain available.
 

miguel

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Jul 2, 2003
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What a sorry dilemma!!!

The "apagones" have been a dominican "culture" or "way of like", if you will, for generations but it seems that everyday it gets worse and worse.
There are people that are closing their businesses because they can not sell warm or hot merchandise.
There are people that have had an inverter for years and since there's not enough electricity to recharge it, they are going to the darn bathroon with a bucket of water (when there is water) to flush the toilet.
There are those that had the luxury to have a 5.5 kw inverter to run mainly all the house's necesity and NOW can only turn on a few light bulbs because the inverter batteries never get enough electricity to get fully recharged
When is it going to end?, who knows. I just hope that it does not get worse. I really do not think that it can. But then again, who knows!.