More than 12-hour blackouts have again become common in the DR. The government reports that several major power plants are out for maintenance or repairs, including the large Smith and Enron plant. This is resulting yesterday in a 430 megawatt deficit. National demand is at 1,550 megawatts and the generators are only delivering 1,120 megawatts. The power generation deficit is accompanied by major structural problems of the electricity sector. Generation and distribution is now in the hands of the private sector, but the necessary coordination and structures are not yet in place making matters worse. Long blackouts are nothing new in the DR, a country where businesses and middle class families all operate parallel generator systems in order to survive frequent power outages. But in the past month the situation has worsened, and some areas are reporting receiving less hours of power than of blackouts. In August, power generation and power distribution was privatized with the promise of improving the system. There are promises that by December, there will be considerable improvements, and that by March, the power outages will become a matter of the past. Hotels and resorts do not depend on the national electricity grid for their power needs, and are all prepared to last long hours on their own generators.
