Radhames Segura, vice-president of the Dominican Corporation of State-owned Electric Companies (CDEEE), has said that there is “no immediate way out of the electricity crisis,” and that the government is not disregarding the possibility of intervening in the Ede-Este distribution company. Segura admitted that “the public is receiving very expensive electricity, and they are not willing to continue supporting this or the continual blackouts that occur due to power rationing.” Segura said that there was no miraculous way out of the situation, and that the government has well conceived plans but it will take two years for the results to be seen. Segura also commented on the fact that Ede-Este has been administered by AES-Dominicana since it was privatized, but that this entity has recently sold its shares to a Californian company, TCWW, and TCWW chose AES-Dominicana to run the operations, all without consulting the Dominican government, a major partner in the privatization process. In fact, Segura told reporters from Hoy that the government was going to ask TCWW to change the management of Ede-Este because, in his words, “AES has not proven to be efficient in the Dominican Republic.”
Continuing along with the electricity theme, El Caribe reports that there will be renewed negotiations about the contracts with power generators, starting this morning. Under review will be the Madrid Accords and the IPP contracts. (Independent Power Producers) The discussions will include planning and cash flows projected for 2006. The meeting will attempt to clear up just how large the accumulated debts are for the Rural Electrification Project (PER), the Program for the Reduction of Blackouts (PRA) as well as the IPPs’ deficits. According to El Caribe, two weeks ago the government announced its need to renegotiate the contracts with the IPPs with a view to clearing up the exact cost per kilowatt/hour. According to Segura, current invoices are at least 25% overpriced. The power providers have said on several occasions that they have not sat down with government negotiators because they have not been asked to do so. Today’s meeting is the first step towards the renegotiation of the contracts. According to Hoy, once the government has in its hands the numbers of the total deficit, then President Fernandez can talk to the World Bank and the IMF in order to ensure that the subsidies do not exceed the US$300 million approved by the IMF.