Eight-hour blackouts continued to affect Santo Domingo and interior cities and towns. News reports say 98 of 225 electricity circuits were shut down, primarily for financial reasons not supply shortages. Jose Ovalles, Superintendent of Electricity, confirmed that power bills will go up 20% for all those paying more than RD$1,500 a month starting 1 July. Consumers will notice the increase in their August bills. The additional money will compensate for the fact that the government has not been paying its own power bills and for the large number of barrios where electricity bills are only now starting to be collected. Economist Jaime Aristy writes today in the Listin Diario that the increase is also due to the government choosing to not negotiate unfair billing on behalf of generators. He said the generators are billing more than US$0.11 per kilowatt when similar power plants charge only US$0.06. A proposal to hold a private tender to purchase the fuel to supply directly to the generators has been turned down by the government. Aristy says the government could save US$37 million a year (RD$7,500 million) if it supplied the fuel to the generators.
