Las Edes serán gestionadas por el sector privado
Los empresarios deberán hacer inversiones por algunos US$1,600 millones en la electricidad en los próximos años.
henery Ramirez
jhenery.ramirez@listindiario.com
Santo Domingo, RD
The electricity distribution companies (Edes) could be operated and managed by the private sector through a public-private alliance, as announced yesterday by the executive director of the General Directorate of Public-Private Alliances (DGAPP), Sigmund Freund, during the Breakfast of Listín Diario.
The official explained that the Government has already formally received a proposal for a public-private partnership for the Edes to be administered by the private sector, a project that has been worked on in recent months for Edenorte, Edesur and Edeeste.
Freund added that this plan has been discussed with international firms, such as the Unified Council of Edes and the Electric Cabinet. He clarified that it is not a question of privatizing the edes, but of capitalizing them. The State will not sell its assets, but the private sector will be in charge of managing the distributors and executing an investment plan that will entail about US $ 1.6 billion in the next six to seven years.
With these resources, Freund stressed, the private sector will have to better take charge of the electrical infrastructures, the substation lines, the marketing system and the efficiency of the national energy system.
“We are putting the management in the hands of the private sector. In addition, the electricity pact directs us to this because the State invests US $ 1,000 million and the losses in the distributors do not decrease, because there is no efficient management, the required investment has not been made in recent years and there is no total commercialization because there are many people who do not pay the electricity ”, emphasized the head of the DGAPP in the meeting headed by the president of Editora Listín Diario, Manuel Corripio; the director of Listín, Miguel Franjul, and the editor of the Economics section, Cándida Acosta.
Freund reported that this project would work on a targeted and not general subsidy, through the Solidarity card or another mechanism, citing as an example that if a person will be subsidized 150 megabytes of electricity every month, if they consume more than the stipulated will have to pay from there, a model that works in several countries.
He emphasized that through this public-private alliance, the State would part with those US $ 1,000 million that it must allocate to the Edes and can invest them in the construction of other works.
He also pointed out that the plan seeks for the government to remove that burden and to improve all electricity systems.
At the Listín Breakfast, Freund was accompanied by the technical deputy director of the DGAPP, Eliardo Cairo; the Deputy Director of Contract Management and Supervision, Alan Jiménez, and the Director of Communications, Elaine Nivar.
IN POINTS
Transmission
A PPP project that is also being promoted is the Expansion of the National Transmission System for the Electric Transmission Company (ETED).
Agreement
The objective of this plan is the construction of transmission lines and substations from 138 kilowatts to 345 kilowatts, including the maintenance of these assets during the term of the APP contract.
Time
This public-private alliance will have a 30-year contract, two for construction and 28 for maintenance, and will entail increasing inputs from renewable parks and efficient generation to reduce the deficit in the electricity sector.
