Blackouts coming soon?

[Dolores]

Two news stories hint blackouts could be coming back. The largest private provider of power, the AES power generation group announces its AES Andres, Boca Chica natural gas-powered plant, which adds 319 MW, will be out for longer than expected for regular maintenance. The schedule is now for the plant to be off the National Grid (SENI) for 45 days.

Shortly after that announcement, the management of the Punta Catalina stated the 752 MWpower system went off the national grid. But before the weekend’s close, Punta Catalina had announced that Unit II of the power park was back on the grid.

Read more in Spanish:El Caribe Noticias SIN

14 November 2022

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[PJT]

For many people who will be affected by the predicted blackouts this is unacceptable and will have to be reluctantly tolerated.

It is not "regular maintenance" when a plant is offline 45 days.


Regards,

PJT

 

[David Price]

SEEMS LIKE A VERY LONG TIME FOR "REGULAR MAINTENANCE"

 

[Seamonkey]

What is it with all this maintenance? For the 39 years (born in 1970) that I lived in Canada, never once was the power shut off for maintenance. Is this country that far behind?

 

[Kipling333]

Well Seamonkey , there is very seldom planned maintenance in the DR and there is no understanding of the phrase that a stitch in time saves nine . The theory here is that if it is not broken then do not touch it . It can be seen in all aspects of life here . Over recent months this country has suffered from lack of planned maintenance with more than 35 bridges out of action , drains being blocked, rivers and creeks full of garbage and at so many roads full of deep pot holes. The Boca Chica plant may be privately owned bit it it still has Dominican workers. Power plants need planned maintenance on a continual basis and because this has not happened the inevitable breakdowns cause great problems . In the particular case of Punta Catalina , new parts that are needed come from China and the person who had all the contacts with the Chinese was the brother of Danilo who is now in prison because his role was considered corrupt .But is there anyone else with the same contacts ?? I do not know .

 

[NanSanPedro]

Continue reading...

How to say "we don't have an effin clue" without saying we don't have an effin clue.

 

[drstock]

"Two news stories hint balckeuts could be coming back"? Never mind about coming back. We have them all the time!

 

[PJT]

Well Seamonkey , there is very seldom planned maintenance in the DR and there is no understanding of the phrase that a stitch in time saves nine . The theory here is that if it is not broken then do not touch it . It can be seen in all aspects of life here . Over recent months this country has suffered from lack of planned maintenance with more than 35 bridges out of action , drains being blocked, rivers and creeks full of garbage and at so many roads full of deep pot holes. The Boca Chica plant may be privately owned bit it it still has Dominican workers. Power plants need planned maintenance on a continual basis and because this has not happened the inevitable breakdowns cause great problems . In the particular case of Punta Catalina , new parts that are needed come from China and the person who had all the contacts with the Chinese was the brother of Danilo who is now in prison because his role was considered corrupt .But is there anyone else with the same contacts ?? I do not know .

The mantra in this country is a Dominican version of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".

Regards,

PJT

 

[PJT]

What is it with all this maintenance? For the 39 years (born in 1970) that I lived in Canada, never once was the power shut off for maintenance. Is this country that far behind?

Comparing apples to oranges. Canada has a much larger capacity to produce power than the RD. It has a grid with overlapping distribution lines to provide continuous uninterrupted power when plants are offline. The DR does not have the same comfort. It is behind.

Regards,

PJT

 

[NanSanPedro]

Comparing apples to oranges. Canada has a much larger capacity to produce power than the RD. It has a grid with overlapping distribution lines to provide continuous uninterrupted power when plants are offline. The DR does not have the same comfort. It is behind.

Regards,

PJT

Understatement of the year

 

[Seamonkey]

Comparing apples to oranges. Canada has a much larger capacity to produce power than the RD. It has a grid with overlapping distribution lines to provide continuous uninterrupted power when plants are offline. The DR does not have the same comfort. It is behind.

Regards,

PJT

Ok that's fair. Then let's compare the DR to Ontario which is the province I grew up in. Same population. Never had one outage due to maintenance in the 39 years I Iived there. So the DR is so far behind that it can't be compared to the year 1970 or perhaps preceding years of a first world country? Yet, the DR is equal in certain sectors such as internet and cell phones reception.

 

[Seamonkey]

Well Seamonkey , there is very seldom planned maintenance in the DR and there is no understanding of the phrase that a stitch in time saves nine . The theory here is that if it is not broken then do not touch it . It can be seen in all aspects of life here . Over recent months this country has suffered from lack of planned maintenance with more than 35 bridges out of action , drains being blocked, rivers and creeks full of garbage and at so many roads full of deep pot holes. The Boca Chica plant may be privately owned bit it it still has Dominican workers. Power plants need planned maintenance on a continual basis and because this has not happened the inevitable breakdowns cause great problems . In the particular case of Punta Catalina , new parts that are needed come from China and the person who had all the contacts with the Chinese was the brother of Danilo who is now in prison because his role was considered corrupt .But is there anyone else with the same contacts ?? I do not know .

Edenorte does weekly maintenance on the North Coast and shuts off our power for hours.

 

[Playabavaro]

The mantra in this country is a Dominican version of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".

Regards,

PJT

And just patch it

 

[PJT]

Ok that's fair. Then let's compare the DR to Ontario which is the province I grew up in. Same population. Never had one outage due to maintenance in the 39 years I Iived there. So the DR is so far behind that it can't be compared to the year 1970 or perhaps preceding years of a first world country? Yet, the DR is equal in certain sectors such as internet and cell phones reception.

The reason why the DR may be equal within the internet and cell phone reception is because those communication links have independent backup power at brick & mortar communication buildings. All or most cell towers have generators or batteries that kick in when public power takes a nap. It is rare when private systems have outages, usually they are caused by internal programming corruption, hardware failure, or a hack.

Regards,

PJT

 

[thompstr]

Ok that's fair. Then let's compare the DR to Ontario which is the province I grew up in. Same population. Never had one outage due to maintenance in the 39 years I Iived there. So the DR is so far behind that it can't be compared to the year 1970 or perhaps preceding years of a first world country? Yet, the DR is equal in certain sectors such as internet and cell phones reception.

In Ontario we sell electricity to USA, at a loss
And buy from Quebec at a premium
And Ontario power generation still had over 300 mill profit, and our bills didn't go down

 

[Seamonkey]

In Ontario we sell electricity to USA, at a loss
And buy from Quebec at a premium
And Ontario power generation still had over 300 mill profit, and our bills didn't go down

And they tax you on solar as well. There's no getting aways from paying the big boys.

 

[RDKNIGHT]

The mantra in this country is a Dominican version of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".

Regards,

PJT

that's because most folks don't have the resources to pay to fix it here.

 

[ramesses]

How do the other islands in the Caribbean fare? I don't remember the same kind of problems in Jamaica or Trinidad when I was travelling there.

 

[SKY]

I guess it matters WHO is providing the electricity here. CEPM a private company in Punta Cans has NO blackouts. No different from your home country most likely. But more expensive...........

 

[PJT]

I guess it matters WHO is providing the electricity here. CEPM a private company in Punta Cans has NO blackouts. No different from your home country most likely. But more expensive...........

CEPM is more expensive. However, blackouts due to maintenance are rare, very short in duration. The company has a reserve, the capacity to switch off the power coming from one generator to others that will cover the demand without blackout. The generator offline is then available for maintenance. The company has the ability within its overlapping grid to continue power to areas when distribution lines are down by weather, accident, or revision.

Having the added expense of paying for 24/7 CEPM power is offset by the knowledge there is no paying for the costly loss of business, damaged electrical equipment or spoiling of perishable commodities that occurs quite common in other parts of the country suffering power generators with extended blackouts.

Regards,

PJT