In spite of four lengthy meetings and several workshops and forums, the situation facing the electricity sector is unchanged. According to El Caribe, President Leonel Fernandez attended the latest meeting last February, and he will preside over a fifth meeting next week. The recent surge in blackouts attributed to fuel saving by the Independent Power Providers (IPPs) has only deepened the crisis that affects the entire population in one way or another. The next meeting is scheduled for 8 and 9 September in Juan Dolio.
Part of the problem resides in the fact that the electricity distributors (EDEs) fear that the application of the General Law of Electricity (128-01) will spur a stampede to auto-generation units for many of their best paying customers, and these EDEs have pressurized the Superintendent of Electricity to increase the minimum needed to qualify for non-regulated status, as stated in comments by Marisol Vicens and Eduardo Valcarcel over the last few weeks.
In addition, as reported by El Caribe, the Dominican Republic is the fourth worst nation in the world when it comes to loss of energy over transmission lines or though thievery. Only Haiti, the Congo and Moldova are worse off. This conclusion is contained in the report prepared by the Adam Smith consultancy firm commissioned by President Fernandez. In 2000, the nation was the ninth worst; in 2002 it occupied the seventh worst position and is currently the fourth worst nation with respect to the loss of energy in the distribution system. The DR easily scores twice the average for all of Latin America in this category and only Haiti (worse) and Nicaragua (slightly better) are also in the top ten of this ranking. Haiti is second worst and Nicaragua is ninth worst. Figures show that the EDEs purchase US$90 million in electricity from the IPPs but are able to collect US$45 million from their customers.
In the DR, there are many pockets of population where everyone pays for the service. These include the touristic areas of Punta Cana-Bavaro area (La Altagracia province), Las Terrenas (Samana province), and even Pedernales, capital of the poorest province in the country, that reports a 95% payment schedule. In these towns, blackouts are few, proving the problems can be resolved.

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