Ivan de Jesus Garcia, president of the Dominican Federation of Merchants, said the only way to explain the increase in electricity rates at a time of long blackouts is that the power distributors have increased their rates. In an interview with the Listin Diario, he said, “How is it possible that a store that before paid RD$10,000 for power is now paying up to RD$20,000 for fewer hours of power? Undoubtedly, there has been an increase in the cost of power. They [the power distributors] can say what they want, but the reality is there has been an increase.” He complained many areas are only receiving eight hours of power a day due to blackouts. The Listin Diario reports that yesterday 21 plants were out of service, resulting in a 564 megawatt deficit. Demand is at 1,700 megawatts. The government promises the situation will considerably improve by December when new power plants go online. Likewise, the government recently announced it has taken on a RD$1.4 billion loan to make payments on arrears to the power companies. Listin Diario also reports that the Dominican Electricity Corporation has been using money from the Fondo Patrimonial para el Desarrollo (Development Fund) to make payments to the generators. The newspaper says this goes against Law 124-01 which restricts the use of that fund to investments that improve the service.
