According to the Superintendence of Electricity stats during the first seven months of this year, on average Dominicans did not have power for 77.87 hours a month, or the equivalent of 3.2 days a month without electricity.
The power service reliability depends on where you live, with the worst provider being EdeEste in the eastern part of Greater Santo Domingo and to the East. EdeEste customers suffered an average 109.24 hours without electricity per month between January and July. It appears that the situation is getting worse with an average of 106.97 hours without electricity in January that by July had risen to 115.25 hours.
Over the same time period, in the case of EdeNorte the average was 48.23 hours a month with no electricity although in May it was 71.84 hours and in March inflicted 17.51 hours of blackouts on average.
Edesur left its clients with 3.17 days a month with no electricity.
According to the Regional Center for Sustainable Economic Strategies (CREES), the reason for the blackouts is the poor financial management of the distributors. The think tank observes that while the power distributors may have enough capacity to meet the demand, they decide not to. This is the case in 75% of the lack of provision of electricity with 10% being for ‘other operational causes’ such as overcharging of the system, breakdowns of the generators. In 9% of the cases it is because of maintenance and in 6% of the cases it is due to protection of the distribution equipment when the supply is turned off.
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Diario Libre
12 September 2018
