El Caribe newspaper points out that the vertical integration of the generation and distribution of power in the DR is bad news for Dominican consumers. Energy Superintendent, Jose Ovalles says that the trend is for power distributors to continue to build generators so they can buy from home company affiliates. Alleging that they are not the same companies, Union Fenosa (Spain) and AES (US) companies are installing generators to produce power. Ovalles pointed out that this vertical integration is happening in violation to contractual commitments by the distributors. The contractual commitment established a 15% ceiling to their authorized generation capacity. Ovalles said that if the trend continues, nothing will stop the companies from reaching agreements among themselves and selling the kilowatt expensively at 14 cents, for example. He said that at present, the distributors are to blame for 66% of the blackouts that occur. Most of the blackouts are due to financial reasons affecting the profitability of the distributors, he explained. He said only 16% occur for generation problems and 18% due to transmission problems.
