How are expariates dealing with the 24 hour long blackouts in Santo Domingo?

[Sanation]

I think all of you are exaggerating.
people who doesnt live here will think is true that we have 24 hours blackouts
more than 90% of mediun class and up (people who pay electricity) has 24 hours electricity here. that mean you get between 20 and 24 hours elect. depend where you live. in my case I get 24 hours elect. i have apagones not more than 2 or 3 a week, and it last not more than 10-15mins.
I dont even have inverter or generator because i dont need it.

Well, aren't you the lucky one. Please tell me where you live - we are moving in! :cheeky:

We live in an area which is supposed to be on a 24hr circuit. Yet, even before the current crisis, we were regularly without electricity several times a week for 6+ hours. The last few weeks we have more often than not been without electricity (up to 20 hours a day). The power will come on for a few hours, barely enough time to recharge the inverter, before it goes out again.

We could not survive without an inverter. The current situation has got us thinking about investing in a planta. We live and work from our home, so any blackouts effect us. Luckily the inverter allows us to have our internet connection, run the computers, lights and fans.

We religiously pay our exhorident bills from Edesur (RD$16,000 - RD$25,000 per month). Even with the blackouts, I don't expect our next bill to be any less as the inverter chews through the electricity whilst recharging.

If anyone outside of the DR thinks that we are exaggerating, think again. The country has reached crisis point. Business' are closing their doors because they don't have a reliable electrical supply. This is not like in the 'western world' where you have an energy crisis and rolling blackouts are announced and you are advised a timetable as to when you can expect to be without electricity and how long for. At least if they did this, people and business' alike would be able to plan their activities around the timetable.

Instead, we are left wondering how long we will be without electricity, making sure we have enough water to last a couple of days, taking daily trips to the supermarket, etc.

It may not seem like much, but try living it.

 

[johnny]

move to los cacicazgos. most funcionarios from Leonel Fernandez cabinet live here, including vicepresident, Danilo Medina and the minister of electricity among others. and you will see when somebody talk to you about apagones, you will think he is living in another country.
I know the current crisis is affecting everybody now. but as I said before, this crisis has been for the last 2 or 3 weeks.and this happen every year. in few days or week, everything back to normal

 

[Sanation]

move to los cacicazgos

We live in Los Cacicazgos - one street from the Dominican Fiesta Hotel!

As I said previously, we have had blackouts for up to 20 hours a day. Yet again our electricity is off this morning.

We are certainly not as 'hard hit' as some other areas in SD, but we are being dramatically affected.

 

[Bellamona]

I think all of you are exaggerating.
people who doesnt live here will think is true that we have 24 hours blackouts
more than 90% of mediun class and up (people who pay electricity) has 24 hours electricity here. that mean you get between 20 and 24 hours elect. depend where you live. in my case I get 24 hours elect. i have apagones not more than 2 or 3 a week, and it last not more than 10-15mins.
I dont even have inverter or generator because i dont need it.
now, is true that now we have a critical condition, in some areas are having between 4-8 hours blackout daily. but this is financial. the goverment owe to generators more than 400millions dlls.
once they pay, everything back to normal. we have this happening every year, in the last 10 years.

I live in Cacique - power goes out every week-day Monday through Friday from approx. 7AM to 7PM and then intermittently during the night. Weekends are hit and miss but we generally have power. This started full force about 2 weeks ago. We have no generator and that means the water pump goes out as well, so, as we are on the top floor we run a hose from the tinaco down through the kitchen window and get a little water that way. Amazingly enough we haven't lost food due to the blackouts. I can live without light but I do get upset about no water.

Good thing I love to read 'cause I'd be in trouble if TV was my only friend, and reading by flashlight can be fun

We don't have AC so I don't miss that either.

Solution to blackouts? Have a friend pick you up in a super air-conditioned vehicle and head to the mall or restaurant - that has been working for me lately!

PS Fall of 2007 we had a run of power outages and were without running water (due to electric pump) for two weeks - now THAT is fun.

 

[Bellamona]

Ps

Just because your power is out 8-12 hours a day does not mean your factura is proportionally reduced - funny..........I woulda thought so..

 

[hedgie]

Has there been a lot of power outages in the gazcue area the past few days? I've only been able to talk to my bf for like 15 minutes over the past 4 days now.

 

[rubio_higuey]

Most likely it's a sankie outage and not power outage

 

[ExtremeR]

I live in Evaristo Morales, last week was a miserable one, but things got better on Saturday and going forward...

 

[bienamor]

Hold on

I live in Evaristo Morales, last week was a miserable one, but things got better on Saturday and going forward...

we also had a good week last week, this weekend back to bad normal. ciudad nueva

 

[Expat133]

it is very ridiculous that a city thats seems somewhat developed has such 4th world problems, yet they expect tourism to remain the number economic driver.

 

[jrhartley]

I think you need to visit some african countries to find out what a 3rd world country really is

 

[Bryanell]

I think you need to visit some african countries to find out what a 3rd world country really is

You don't really have to go that far.
Just cross the border into Haiti.......

 

[catcherintherye]

Or even some locations within the US.

Microeconomics is regional, and even in large macro economically developed countries there can be pockets of behind the curve of economic regression. Checks out some of the rural sections of Appalachia if you doubt those anomalies exist.

 

[abdullah]

Any power outages for the mirador norte area . . .hope i spelled it right. . . How much does a good invertor cost. . . How long does it take an investor to charge fully , and how long it can provide light when fully charged . . Also would like to know the price for a generator that could run water pump , tv , computer , thats it . . Would really appreciate your help . . . Thanks

 

[WillSDQ]

Well, at last we have the Metro! Electricity first, mass transit later!

 

[live_for_life]

People still keep getting regular electric bills even with such long periods of not having electricity? Do the power companies pro-rate/adjust your electrical bill when there are long periods of having no power?

 

[jrhartley]

errrrrr we have meters so we only pay for what we use- ive only run out of power once and that was because one of our batteries had failed and the rest were not charging up properly

 

[Sanation]

$16000 - $25000 a month!!?? What in the world do you have in your house.

I have a 7 BR, 8 Bath house, and my bill runs about $2000 pesos a month, and I have an inverter.

I guess I should go into the teaching energy conservation business...

I wish! We run an office from the house, so have a/c running pretty much well 24/7. We have friends in an apartment and their bills run at RD$12,000 - RD$15,000 a month and they only run the a/c at night.

If we could get the bill down without baking in our concrete oven, we certainly would. Any tips you can provide would be appreciated.

 

[rubio_higuey]

errrrrr we have meters so we only pay for what we use- ive only run out of power once and that was because one of our batteries had failed and the rest were not charging up properly

You actually pay more with inverter than what you would pay for the same electricity from the street - it's been discussed that each kWh that inverter gives you "costs" about 1.5 kWh to charge with the street power.

Your electric bill is actually proportionally higher.

 

[rubio_higuey]

People still keep getting regular electric bills even with such long periods of not having electricity? Do the power companies pro-rate/adjust your electrical bill when there are long periods of having no power?

The law on electricity says that, electric superintendency even has a calculation formula, but good luck getting the refunds!

The consumer protection group calculated and estimated that the power distribution companies "owe to refund" about 1 billion US dollars to consumers for power outages since when the law (and the formula) came into effect. That's back in 2000. Good luck getting the money.