Felix Jimenez, president of the Dominican Petroleum Refinery, explained why the recent blackouts. He said the refinery can store fuel oil for only 18 days. The small power plants that fill in when the larger ones are out for maintenance for whatever other reason use this fuel.
Recently, an order of 84,000 barrels of fuel oil was turned back by the refinery for below-par quality. The rejection of the supplied fuel coincided with bad weather in the Caribbean, impeding other suppliers to send in fuel. All this happened at a time when the hot weather affecting the country resulted in peak demand for electricity.
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El Dia
2 October 2019