The executive vice president of the Public Electricity Corporation (CDEEE), Ruben Jimenez Bichara is insisting on a closed deal for the Punta Catalina power generation for discussions on the Electricity Pact. He made the comments when meeting with the Corripio Media Group yesterday, Wednesday 14 January 2015.
The government has moved ahead with the deal despite the National Development Strategy Law calling for an Electricity Pact to be drafted with a view to regulating the country’s power installations and systems. The argument is that the Punta Catalina charcoal-fired generators will enable the country to pressure for lower generation prices from competing generators.
The Medina administration called for the talks for the Electricity Pact to start this year, but is calling for them to be conditional on future talks, not the past.
The Pact talks coincide with the expiry of the 2001 Madrid Accords, contracts with power generators this year and next. The discussions are aimed at contracting lower-costing power for the next three years. Jimenez Bichara says that power no longer needs to be contracted for the longer term because the generators have already paid off their investments in the generation plants.
Jimenez Bichara says that the main problems affecting the sector are generation (60%), followed by distribution (35%) and efficiency in management (15%).
He commented that the government has made savings of US$400 million as a result of the recent fall in oil prices.
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