NewsWhore
09-14-2006, 03:40 PM
After a recent meeting to discuss the energy crisis, it was decided that the law should be implemented, which would penalize customers caught stealing electricity, but an analysis carried out by Bernardo Vega in Clave newspaper questions whether this solution is enough. He mentions how the counter-reform that called for the nationalization of two of the three electricity distribution companies during the Hipolito Mejia administration only increased the payroll, and that President Leonel Fernandez hasn't changed the payroll, he has instead just replaced PRD members with members of his PLD party.
The analysis also criticizes how instead of appointing two foreigners to head the nationalized companies, the government should have, under concession, given complete control to foreign companies.
Vega comments that a mafia has developed in the energy sector, which now even includes military personnel abusing their power to impede the collection of payment from the larger consumers of electricity, and when efforts are made to collect on a payment, the traditional call is then made to the Presidential Palace in order to have things left as is.
Vega mentions that during his first administration, President Fernandez signed the onerous Cogentrix plant agreement, which should never have received the support of the Inter-American Development Bank, he states. He mentions that the fuel oil plant bills the state without generating electricity. "Since it is not competitive, the government pays its owner, Goldman Sachs, US$60 million a year, without the plant even having to be turned on," he writes. If they are already benefiting from this type of agreement whereby they collect without generating power, why would Goldman Sachs be interested in investing in its conversion to natural gas to reduce its costs, as the government announced, asks Vega. He also wonders who will buy this plant and at what price.
He goes on to refer to the tender that was held for the installation of coal-fired plants that included terms of reference that might have scared off serious companies and was won by a pair of Asian companies that, to date, haven't even paid the first bond. It is presumed that they are pressing to obtain new terms of reference similar to those of Cogentrix. In his opinion, what would be correct would be to hold another tender with new terms of reference.
Vega concludes that with the help of God, despite what he points out above, if it could be achieved that these plants switch to natural gas instead of fuel oil, their production costs would be reduced, for the benefit of all, and there would be less local dependence on Chavez's geopolitical credit, because Venezuela does not produce natural gas.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#9)
The analysis also criticizes how instead of appointing two foreigners to head the nationalized companies, the government should have, under concession, given complete control to foreign companies.
Vega comments that a mafia has developed in the energy sector, which now even includes military personnel abusing their power to impede the collection of payment from the larger consumers of electricity, and when efforts are made to collect on a payment, the traditional call is then made to the Presidential Palace in order to have things left as is.
Vega mentions that during his first administration, President Fernandez signed the onerous Cogentrix plant agreement, which should never have received the support of the Inter-American Development Bank, he states. He mentions that the fuel oil plant bills the state without generating electricity. "Since it is not competitive, the government pays its owner, Goldman Sachs, US$60 million a year, without the plant even having to be turned on," he writes. If they are already benefiting from this type of agreement whereby they collect without generating power, why would Goldman Sachs be interested in investing in its conversion to natural gas to reduce its costs, as the government announced, asks Vega. He also wonders who will buy this plant and at what price.
He goes on to refer to the tender that was held for the installation of coal-fired plants that included terms of reference that might have scared off serious companies and was won by a pair of Asian companies that, to date, haven't even paid the first bond. It is presumed that they are pressing to obtain new terms of reference similar to those of Cogentrix. In his opinion, what would be correct would be to hold another tender with new terms of reference.
Vega concludes that with the help of God, despite what he points out above, if it could be achieved that these plants switch to natural gas instead of fuel oil, their production costs would be reduced, for the benefit of all, and there would be less local dependence on Chavez's geopolitical credit, because Venezuela does not produce natural gas.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#9)