Ruben Montas, the official spokesperson for the electric sector, told reporters that the government had paid US$10 million to the electricity generators for them to purchase fuel for their equipment. Montas announced that over the next few months until December the government will disburse US$10 million a month to each of the generators to help restore stability to the beleaguered sector. Of the US$50-million line of credit announced by President Fernandez last month, US$10 million had already been disbursed, meaning the generators have received US$20 million in the last few days. According to Montas, the money will be distributed through Ede-Sur as they are the unit with direct commercial relations with the generators. While revealing that these funds come from a pool of local commercial banks, Montas also said that, according to the government’s estimates, the total, global debt within the electric sector represents nearly US$400 million.
A report in Diario Libre says, however, that the electric authorities have yet to sit down with the private power companies to discuss the renegotiation of their contracts or any measures to help them out of the crisis. The report says that this inaction is due to the fact that the government has nothing to offer in the way of resources until the fiscal reform package is ratified and the IMF Standby agreement resumed.
Currently connected to the national grid are Haina, Itabo, Metaldom, Union Fenosa, Seaboard, Puerto Plata Electric Company, Monte Rio, AES-Andres, and Cogentrix, but all are operating below capacity because of low fuel levels.
EDE-Este reported that their repair crews had restored 85% of the service that was knocked out by Tropical Storm Jeanne last week. The distributor estimates damages to transmission lines, sub-stations and poles to be in the range of RD$35 million. The EDEs reported that 655 poles were toppled over, 22 transformers were damaged, 43,000 meters of three-phase and 6,000 meters of single-phase wiring was brought down, and 12,000 meters of low-voltage wiring was damaged. Fifty-one crews from Ede-Este and 30 from the CDEEE worked around the clock to restore service.