Newspaper reports in Hoy and the Listin Diario refer to the recent studies by Pa Consulting and the Power Institute of the state university, UASD that indicate Dominican consumers are already paying too much for the power service.
\nThe PA Consulting, funded by the US Agency for International Development, stated that consumers are already paying 21% more for power than they should.
\nThe Universidad Autonoma de Santo Domingo Power Institute director Luis Moreno San Juan is also very vocal about the excessive profits power companies have been making. He says that Dominicans are paying 30% more than they should if the Madrid Agreement of mid-2001 is taken into account, as reported in a story in the economy section of Sunday?s Listin Diario.
\nMoreno San Juan says that the government has yet to penalize power companies with the 150% credit per hour of blackouts levied on consumers, as per the Electricity Law. He said this should have been implemented in January 2003, but has been postponed benefiting the power companies. Moreno explained that for every eight hours of blackouts, the companies should return RD$80 to RD$100 million to consumers.
\nThe USAID-PA Consulting report says that Union Fenosa-Edesur hit consumers with 300 hours of blackouts per semester, while Union Fenosa-Edenorte and AES Edeeste on average delivered 583 and 531 hours of blackouts, respectively, to their consumers.
\nFurthermore, Moreno says that the electricity rate established in Resolution 31-2002 was based on generators consuming fuel oil, the most expensive combustible. Today, however, major power generators are using natural gas or charcoal, signifying greater earnings and none of these savings are passed on to Dominican consumers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Newspaper reports in Hoy and the Listin Diario refer to the recent studies by Pa Consulting and the Power Institute of the state university, UASD that indicate Dominican consumers are already paying too much for the power service. The PA Consulting, funded by the US Agency for International Development, stated that consumers are already paying … <\/p>\n