While it is nothing new, the electricity service which had timidly been getting better took a turn for the worse over the weekend, plunging much of Santo Domingo into prolonged blackouts lasting up to 12 or more hours.
Diario Libre pointed out that even those sectors of the city where the PRA (the government’s Program to Reduce Blackouts) had promised to provide at least 18 hours of service were undergoing 20-hour power outages. Some residents of these barrios told Diario Libre that the PRA offices in their neighborhoods were closed and there was no place to pay for the little service they did receive.
Not only Santo Domingo, but the rest of the nation suffered through a series of blackouts due to the reduction in generation from Itabo and Cogentrix in San Pedro de Macoris. As of yesterday, there was a 400 megawatt deficit in generation. Itabo I was out on Sunday afternoon. Keeping the lights on were the hydroelectric dams with 132 megawatts, Smith-Enron with 132 mw and Puerto Plata I and II with 34.6 megawatts. Also on board were EgeHaina with 146 megawatts, Seaboard, with 83 megawatts, Monte Rio with 71 mw, AES-Andres with 182 and Metaldom with 30 mw.