The economic section of the Listin Diario reports that the electricity distributors and their clients, the consumers, allege they have lost RD$5.43 billion due to the continuous blackouts that have been the bane of human existence in the Dominican Republic since 2003. Both government-administered power distributors Ede-Norte and Ede-Sur have compiled a report that blames the losses on a lack of electricity supplied by the generators and accusing them of collecting money ?for a production capacity that is not being backed up by real time availability.? For the Edes, this means that their client base is not receiving all the electricity that they can use, which in turn means that the potential income of the Edes also suffers. According to the document, as reported by Bredyg Disla for the Listin Diario, non-fulfillment by the generators of their commitment to supply power is causing serious harm to the clients and the Edes themselves.
Written in coordination with the CDEEE, the document furthermore points out that from September through December of 2003 the availability of electricity from the generators was below the billed amount 100% of the time. The report says there is 1,690 MW being invoiced to the distributors at a 93% completion rate. This translates to higher costs because of purchases on the spot market, and because of energy that is not delivered to clients.
The report also shows how the 143% devaluation of the Dominican peso raised costs for electricity 101%.
A final and ironic problem identified by the report was the fact that energy produced at low cost in the East of the Dominican Republic could not be sent to the consumers in the North. Specifically, the AES Andres generating facility is not equipped to send energy to the northern parts of the country.