Jose Ovalle, the Superintendent of Electricity, says the government owes RD$4,000 million to the electrical sectors, as reported in Hoy newspaper. He attributes the surge in blackouts to the government’s difficulties in making its payments. Meanwhile, Karl Huber, president of AES Distribuidora del Este, said most of the blackouts are occurring because of a lack of power production and the government’s cash flow problems. He explained that the government consumes RD$25 to RD$30 million per month and is in arrears for RD$115 million since April. He said the government has only made payments in the past four months of RD$15 million for power consumption. He said none of the government institutions want to pay for the service and this produces a chain reaction. “What we have not collected from the government, obviously we have not paid to the CDE. The CDE needs to pay the generators,” he explained. Reportedly, part of the problem is the government tradition of not using department budgets to pay for power, leaving this up to the CDE. Prior to privatization, government electricity consumption was the responsibility of the state electrical utility, the CDE, but this is no longer the case. Power production is down about 900 megawatts due to plant shutdowns for lack of payment. This is resulting in nationwide power outages of 12-24 hours which in turn stresses the alternate power systems and increases the cost of doing business in the DR.
