Jose Luis Moreno, director of the Energy Institute at the state UASD University, has told El Caribe that the World Bank only exists to defend companies. In his opinion, for the nation to continue borrowing from abroad to inject resources into the power sector is the same as the useless taking on of debt, given what he described as a series of irrational circumstances that affect the system. “I have said and I maintain that the World Bank only defends the interests of the companies and not those of countries, and thus it defends the interests of the generation companies, without there being any reason to defend them,” he stated. The World Bank played a major role financing the Smith-Enron power plant in Puerto Plata, one of the most criticized power installations of all times in the DR primarily for the requirement of the government having to for installed capacity, not necessarily for power served.
“Likewise, we oppose any increase in rates without before applying the technical rates as stipulated in Law 125-01,” he stated. He insisted that the bills that consumers are paying are inflated by 25%. Moreno stated that the energy prices offered by the generators are overvalued between 25 and 30%.
Last week, power service in the DR improved with the arrival of fuel for the AES Andres power plant.