About six days ago, the government signed an agreement with the different electricity distributors, yet now many sectors are complaining that the blackouts are worse than ever. El Caribe reports that sources are saying that the deal, called “a step towards sustainability” for the sector, implies just more sacrifice for those who pay for the energy they consume. According to the deal the distributors, EdeNorte, EdeSur and EdeEste agreed to use only as much energy that they could pay for, in order to avoid accumulating more debt with the generators. The government in turn guaranteed timely payment of electricity purchased. On average, each one of the distributors consumes US$30 million worth of electricity per month. Since these entities (the Edes) only collect on 50% of the energy that they supply, the lack of resources to cover the current invoices, which, according to the agreement must be punctual and complete, is reflected in blackouts lasting up to 15 hours.
Last year, the government was obliged to request an exemption from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) because the different distributors had not made a concerted effort to increase their collection rates. This, in turn, contributed to the increase in the sector’s deficit, which at US$550 million was US$150 million more than predicted. This year, the deficit is programmed to be just US$500 million. Because of the need to provide power for the clients who can pay, many Santo Domingo neighborhoods are experiencing very long power outages. In some areas in northern Santo Domingo, many schools have been unable to hold their evening sessions due to power outages.
Unfortunately, in the DR, more hours of blackouts, unexplainably does not translate into reduced power bills for paying consumers.