During a political rally in La Romana, President Joaquin Balaguer told journalists that he has instructed the government-run Banco de Reservas to pay US$4,500,000 to the Smith-Enron company, which shut down its power station in Puerto Plata late last month, due to lack of payment for electricity provided to the state-owned Corporacion Dominicana de Electricidad (CDE).
According to the newspaper Hoy, the payment of the US$4,500,000 will be the first in a series aimed at clearing the US$12.2 million the CDE owes to Smith-Enron. The news that the central government will help with the debt, something that the CDE’s administrator Amilcar Romero has been calling for over the last three weeks, raises hopes that the frequent and lengthy power cuts experienced throughout the country during will diminish. In addition to the absence of the 185,000 kilowatts that the Smith-Enron power station was providing until late March, the Compañia de Electricidad de Puerto Plata also partially withdrew its generators from the CDE’s distribution network, with some reports indicating that the US$23 million that it is owed by the CDE has made it impossible to buy sufficient fuel. (This has since been denied by an official from the company when speaking to The NEWS. He said that the reason for the shut down was a shipment of contaminated fuel.) The Smith-Enron company made similar claims when it stopped production three weeks ago.
As the electricity problems hit a high point last week, the Listin Diario newspaper published a report on the CDE’s generators that are out of service either because they are obsolete, or in need of repairs. Of the 15 thermoelectric generators, only seven are currently in use, while three of the eight turbine gas units are out of service. Five of the 17 hydroelectric plants are currently inoperative – their effectiveness largely depends on the rainfall. During the low point of electricity production last week, electricity output was approximately 653.2 megawatts against a demand of 1,050 megawatts. Of the 653.2 megawatts, the CDE’s units were generating 526.6 and private suppliers 125.6.
Another problem mentioned by the Listin are the enormous debts, over RD$1,500 million, that private and some decentralized government companies owe the CDE. The figure is almost double that Corporation is estimated to owe the private suppliers (RD$800 million).
19 April – 2 May 1996