Electricity production is now as it was in the 80s, according to Hoy newspaper?s Fior Gil. Only 619.68MW of power was available for the entire country yesterday, with the departure of the Itabo II unit from the national grid for reasons cited as technical. The 900MW deficit has forced businesses and industries to modify their work schedules and their service hours, in order to spare their private electric generators from overuse.
The hydroelectric dams, which were primarily designed to supply power at peak hours, were supplying 33% of all electricity yesterday.
The blackouts have eliminated the advantage of using power inverters because there is no longer sufficient formal service during which time to charge the batteries.
Santiago?s La Informacion published a white-on-black headline proclaiming that the DR?s second city is completely blacked out. Smith-Enron, which had turned on its generators after a US$4-million payment made to them last weekend, once again shut down the plant because of an alleged fuel shortage.
In Santo Domingo, commerce has had to make its own adjustments. For example, Plaza Central, one of the largest malls in the city, has limited its standby generator to 12 hours of use a day. Banking hours and store hours in the mall have been reworked to accommodate the workload of the generators. These new opening and closing hours go into effect at 10am today. At Plaza Central, the air-conditioning units are not in use, but the Unicentro mall has had a new generator installed that will permit the comfort of air conditioning. At Diamond Mall, the other large city shopping center, the businesses operate nearly 100% on their own generators, since the area receives less than three hours of service a day from the electric company.