Power Distributors - YOU SUCK!

Robert · Jul 14, 2009

11hrs and counting with no power today and I'm guessing more extended power cuts on the way. Yes, I'm lucky, buffered with an invertor and planta, but come on!

After 10 years of living here, I still can't get my head around how the Dominican people allow this to go on.

Why is it that other Latin countries like Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Argentina etc don't suffer from the same apathy and complete lack of willingness like Dominicans do?

Why can so may other Latin countries supply stable power to their population? Why have successive governments and the people been so inadequate at solving this problem?

Sometimes I just don't get it....

mike l · Jul 14, 2009

I feel your pain.

When this happens where I live I lose AC which is not enjoyable.

It seems this happens more in the summer months than the winter months when the tourists bring $$$.

Whatever reason they have for doing this must seem to be working for the powers that be, because it does not look like this will ever change.

mountainannie · Jul 14, 2009

Robert,

Shall I keep an eye out for an apartment and an office for you here in Gazcue, near the National Palace and the PLD HQ where they keep the lights going all the time so that the President does not actually know that the lights are out?

Oh, wait, he would probably see that there are no lights on when his plane flies in from Israel, right?

But I do here that it is cheaper in Argentina. But they have snow there, right?

ExtremeR · Jul 15, 2009

Hey vecino se corrieron esta gente hoy ehh.. I though the inverter batteries would just die.

Hlywud · Jul 15, 2009

You need

It is amazing with all the prevailing trade winds someone doesnt set up a wind farm, we have them ll around us here in Canada and they are very efficient.
43 are up and running and an additional 50 plus under construction

cobraboy · Jul 15, 2009

I, for one, am not at all surprised that the blackouts are increasing.

I recall the reason the electric rates went up is to better pay for electricity since around half, +/-10% I understand, is stolen.

So rates go up during an economic downturn and I'll bet paying customers go down, making the operating deficit even worse. And now we learn that tax payments and remittances are down significantly. So both consumers and gubmint has less $$$ to pay for electricity.

I was in Santo Domingo yesterday somewhere in a congested neighborhood
near the Olympic Stadium. I saw two instances of young men doing an illegal power hook-up.

No surprises here. I expect the blackouts to increase.

A rhetorical question, one I ask of my friends that complain about Dominican Law Enforcement often: If a law is not enforced, does it exist?

cobraboy · Jul 15, 2009

Hlywud said:
It is amazing with all the prevailing trade winds someone doesnt set up a wind farm, we have them ll around us here in Canada and they are very efficient.
43 are up and running and an additional 50 plus under construction

I'm pretty sure technology is not the issue. Getting folks to pay for power is the issue.

suarezn · Jul 15, 2009

Does anyone know if anybody has tried building their own wind power generator. I've seen a lot of these things on the web and it seems like the largest expense is the inverter and batteries - something most Dominican houses already have. The rest of the stuff seems to be pretty cheap and easy to get so you'd think people would be trying to charge their inverters via wind power.

I was thinking I would try this sometime when I had some time and I was back in The DR.

For instance here's one some guy built.

How I built an electricity producing wind turbine

From what I read pretty much all you need is to make the blades which you can build out of plastic tubing, the motor (which are cheap on E-bay) and a charge controller to make sure the batteries don't get overcharged (also cheap). So it seems that people would have done this already down there. It even seems as a potential viable business if you can build a "canned" system you can sell.

El Tigre · Jul 15, 2009

Robert said:
11hrs and counting with no power today and I'm guessing more extended power cuts on the way. Yes, I'm lucky, buffered with an invertor and planta, but come on!

After 10 years of living here, I still can't get my head around how the Dominican people allow this to go on.

Why is it that other Latin countries like Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Argentina etc don't suffer from the same apathy and complete lack of willingness like Dominicans do?

Why can so may other Latin countries supply stable power to their population? Why have successive governments and the people been so inadequate at solving this problem?

Sometimes I just don't get it....

When you post something like this it's because you have just had it with you living there and knowing how things work. It's threads like these that sometimes deter me from buying a place down there. I don't know if I could live without electricity for such a long time. :ermm::ermm::ermm:

suarezn · Jul 15, 2009

windeguy said:
Great idea, but where I live building my own wind turbine would not be very practical. We are near the ocean and that requires that the unit be as sealed as possible to reduce the effects of salt air corrosion. Unfortunately the best winds are also right next to the ocean.

And, even though I am close to the ocean, I am not quite on the water's edge and the winds I have over my property are of questionable value in generating any real amount of power. I wish it were otherwise.

The power distributors SUCK!..

Well OK for some people it wouldn't be practical because of salt corrosion or whatever other reason, but I would think a huge amount of the population could probably use something like this, because again they already own the inverters and battery bank. Also it seems to me that the beauty of it would be the fact that even if only a small amount of electricity is generated that should be enough to completely charge your batteries over a period of time, because this would be going pretty much all day long. I'm no electrician but it is something I would like to try some day and wondered if someone already had.

cobraboy · Jul 15, 2009

El Tigre said:
When you post something like this it's because you have just had it with you living there and knowing how things work. It's threads like these that sometimes deter me from buying a place down there. I don't know if I could live without electricity for such a long time. :ermm::ermm::ermm:

You don't have to. You just have to plan around it.

Unless you need an a/c'd meat locker to live in, it's not that much more expensive. And if you do need constant a/c, a studly generator is not that massive an investment.

Frankly, I've found living modestly in the DR to be one of "less" being "more". Once away from the convenient trapping of the First World, life can be much more peaceful when done with comfortable simplicity.

I never thought I could live without a/c. But now I get cold where there IS a/c...:cheeky:

SteveS · Jul 15, 2009

suarezn said:
Does anyone know if anybody has tried building their own wind power generator. I've seen a lot of these things on the web and it seems like the largest expense is the inverter and batteries - something most Dominican houses already have. The rest of the stuff seems to be pretty cheap and easy to get so you'd think people would be trying to charge their inverters via wind power.

I was thinking I would try this sometime when I had some time and I was back in The DR.

For instance here's one some guy built.

How I built an electricity producing wind turbine

From what I read pretty much all you need is to make the blades which you can build out of plastic tubing, the motor (which are cheap on E-bay) and a charge controller to make sure the batteries don't get overcharged (also cheap). So it seems that people would have done this already down there. It even seems as a potential viable business if you can build a "canned" system you can sell.

I've often wondered about the ability to "come off the grid" so to speak, especially recently with the price rises.

How practical is it? and the expense? I don't have the knowledge or know how to even know where to start. Surely people in remote areas have to do it so any knowledge imparted would be appreciated, even if I can only knock off a few hundred KWH it would keep us from knocking around that dreaded 700 mark every month.

AlterEgo · Jul 15, 2009

SteveS said:
I've often wondered about the ability to "come off the grid" so to speak, especially recently with the price rises.

How practical is it? and the expense? I don't have the knowledge or know how to even know where to start. Surely people in remote areas have to do it so any knowledge imparted would be appreciated, even if I can only knock off a few hundred KWH it would keep us from knocking around that dreaded 700 mark every month.

My brother-in-law has a good sized house up on a mountain in Ocoa that he uses on weekends. No electric up there [well, they were putting in poles this spring, and we hear a transformer has been installed, so I guess it's coming - but "Dominican Time", so who knows when]. He has solar panels on the roof, connected to a bank of batteries and an inverter. No a/c [you don't need it up there, it's actually kind of cool most of the time].

My husband is looking into wind power for our house in Najayo Beach, but we won't do anything until we actually are living in SD because he's sure someone will steal it out there. Same with solar panels. They'll take anything that's not nailed down [just got a call yesterday that someone got onto the property and made off with over half of our lemon crop. They'll be after the avocados next].

El Tigre · Jul 15, 2009

cobraboy said:
You don't have to. You just have to plan around it.

Unless you need an a/c'd meat locker to live in, it's not that much more expensive. And if you do need constant a/c, a studly generator is not that massive an investment.

Frankly, I've found living modestly in the DR to be one of "less" being "more". Once away from the convenient trapping of the First World, life can be much more peaceful when done with comfortable simplicity.

I never thought I could live without a/c. But now I get cold where there IS a/c...:cheeky:

Very inspirational!!! :cheeky:

I guess this is one of the things that comes along with living there. And like you said, you just have to plan around it.

caribmike · Jul 15, 2009

I agree with cobraboy.

Another funny thing is that the monthly bill from them seems never reflecting the time of the "se fue la luz" time, doesn't matter, the amount is always the same for me...

Hillbilly · Jul 15, 2009

I am not going to translate this but if you can read Spanish a bit, you will see how the PLD spin doctors have kept people in the dark or confused the issue enough so that there is not an open rebellion.

Pérdidas de energía son mayores en 6% que en años 2008 y 2002 - DiarioLibre.com

Lies and more lies have been fed to the people and, like I and others have said here, the inefficiency of the EDEs is nearing 50%...totally unsustainable...

It is, perhaps the one issue that the opposition can latch on to for the next elections and really drive it home. However, they need to have the balls to do what is necessary--take it private again--and let it stay that way for the next 6 years.

Why should this be so hard? Because there are a few 1000 jobs at stake there, patronage jobs, juicy jobs...but unless they are gotten rid of, and unless the next government takes the audacious step of lowering electricity rates, increasing collections, turning off sectors that do not pay and will not "allow" the EDE to place light meters on houses, things will not and cannot get better.

Everybody pays, or else.

Sorry, venting a bit...

HB

caribmike · Jul 15, 2009

Well, from the QoS there was no difference for me, when the other guys where governing... Power sucked always here... BIG TIME

El_Uruguayo · Jul 15, 2009

I am usually not one to advocate the privatization of public services, but in the case of the DR, I believe it would probably be beneficial, and probably cheaper, better service.

I take it that if sustainable energy sources were to be developed (i.e wind, solar, hydro, tidal) that once infrastructure is in place, there would be less room for kickbacks, making it an undesirable investment in the long run.

I also think a main platform for election, being electricty investment, could win an election, but, do you think people would forget about the problem when they oddly have a decent power supply in the months preceeding the election? (only to have it go back to blackouts a week after elections)

cobraboy · Jul 15, 2009

Hillbilly said:
Why should this be so hard? Because there are a few 1000 jobs at stake there, patronage jobs, juicy jobs...but unless they are gotten rid of, and unless the next government takes the audacious step of lowering electricity rates, increasing collections, turning off sectors that do not pay and will not "allow" the EDE to place light meters on houses, things will not and cannot get better.

Everybody pays, or else.

Sorry, venting a bit...

HB

Exactly my point about the #1 thing the DR could do to begin to solve problems that surround gubmint.

Robert · Jul 15, 2009

Hillbilly said:
I
It is, perhaps the one issue that the opposition can latch on to for the next elections and really drive it home. However, they need to have the balls to do what is necessary--take it private again--and let it stay that way for the next 6 years.

Most of the PRD have trouble tying their own shoelaces.
Just look at their track record on power and the terrible blackouts of 2002-2004, no thank you!!!

Power Distributors - YOU SUCK!

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