The power crisis in Santo Domingo has worsened to the point that large areas of the city are affected by blackouts of over 10 consecutive hours. The blackouts many times occur during the working day, affecting the operation of businesses that have to resort to power plants. The complaint of the day is that the electricity bills do not reflect any lack of service from the CDE. Hoy newspaper reported that the energy deficit was at 427 megawatts. The CDE announced that the situation could improve somewhat when the AES Domincian Power Los Mina VI plant re-enters the system. The CDE is dependent on the private sector for 50% of its supply. Nevertheless, it has been said that contracts authorized by the previous government to private suppliers are onerous to the state and many oblige the state to pay companies per installed capacity and not per energy served. Private suppliers have proven to be unstable in their production of energy, worsening the present situation. The CDE has said that it expects the Los Minas VI power plant back in operation by Friday. It was also said that Smith-Enron would increase its generation capacity by 35,000 kilowatts.
