Celso Marranzini, the head of the Unified Council of Electricity Enterprises (CUED) has been known to say things that are obvious but that many consider “not something you want to say out loud.”
For example, several years ago, when Marranzini was the head of the now-defunct Dominican Corporation of State-owned Electricity Enterprises (CDEEE), he visited several barrios in Santo Domingo with reporters and noted how nearly every humble abode in the barrio had a satellite dish for television and Internet on the roof. These barrios did not have electricity meters, and instread each house was charged a small, fixed rate. He asked the reporters in a facetious manner: “And these people do not pay for electricity?” A reference to the fact that they could afford television and satellite internet service but could not afford to pay for the electricity.
Just last weekend, Marranzini again stated some hard realities. Dominicans do not pay exorbitant rates for electricity, and the truth is that Dominicans do not know how to conserve energy. Talking to reporters, he said that it is normal for folks to leave the air conditioners on all the time, to open the refrigerator 50 times a day, and to leave the iron on when they go to talk to a neighbor. He said that this is a serious problem.
The energy executive also noted that within the next three or four years, the Dominican Republic would add as much as 2000 MW of energy to the national grid. He said that this additional energy could well facilitate the sale of energy to Puerto Rico, an island that seems to be in a permanent energy crisis these days.
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Listin Diario
26 May 2025