Sunday’s El Caribe reported that half the country was without electrical power and questioned whether the blackouts were the fault of mechanical failures or lack of payment. According to Daniel Garcia, a reporter for El Caribe, huge areas of Santo Domingo, even in the Colonial Zone, were blacked out. He emphasized that the Colonial Zone, due to its importance as a tourist area, is usually free from blackouts. Santiago also felt the effects of an 800-megawatt deficit in electricity generation, with 8- to 16-hour blackouts. While some government representatives are citing mechanical problems, reliable sources within the energy sector are saying that non-payment issues are the problem. Superintendent of Power George Reinoso is saying that a problem in the natural gas system of AES Andres and Los Mina caused these two units to go off-line. AES general manager Steve Dahan, however, said that his units were still undergoing testing and that the system would not officially be on-line for three more weeks. Reinoso blames AES Andres for causing a loss of 500 megawatts from the power system.
Other sources are saying that lack of payment to the generators is causing many of them to turn off the electricity. Cogentrix, in San Pedro de Macoris, has halted its production “by administrative order” and claims that the government owes them US$18 million. The term, “by administrative order”, means, in plain English, “We have not been paid.”
While the authorities blame technical defects, but according to El Caribe the problems are financial and generation is down to 700 megawatts from the 1,600-megawatt capacity.
Jaime Javier, of Edesur, said that most of their circuits were not in operation because of lack of diesel.
Meanwhile, the reality is that the generation companies are unwilling to dish out power until their accounts are settled. Furthermore, power generation companies are concerned over who will pay their bills – that they allege add up to US$100 million – now that the government has negotiated a deal to buyback the Union Fenosa shares in the power distributors and has authorized the Spanish company to deduct the agreed upon price of the buyback from the revenues generated by power consumption of the biggest consumers. The deal authorizes a Union Fenosa affiliate, Didoel, to usufruct the revenues produced by the better paying power distributor clients for 12 years.
The agreement calls for the governmental CDEEE to take over the distribution as of 30 September. An audit is pending to determine the finalized state of the accounts. An earlier Grant Thornton audit has revealed major irregularities in the power distributor company finances.