NewsWhore
10-30-2006, 04:30 PM
There was a political cartoon over the weekend that showed a voice coming from the seat of government and shouting "Health, education and electricity!!! Health education and electricity!!! Health education and electricity!!! Can't you talk about anything else??" The reality is that two of the major newspapers, El Caribe and Diario Libre feature important stories on electricity. El Caribe reports that 69% of CDEEE spending goes towards its payroll expenses. Diario Libre reports that 44% of all the energy bought by the distributors is lost. While the headlines from El Caribe might be a bit misleading, the story says that of the RD$625.67 million that the CDEEE received in August, RD$180.95 million went to operating expenses and, of this amount, RD$125.57 million (69.4%) went to pay the employees of the state-run hydroelectric and transmission company. The report goes on to show that the electricity distributors, the EDEs, also appear to be overstocked with employees. All told, the CDEEE and the three EDEs have over 9,000 employees, and the EDEs' payrolls account for almost 35% of their operating expenses.
Diario Libre added insult to injury by reporting how the EDEs lose 44% of all the energy they purchase and charge their clients very high prices for the electricity that they do provide. According to the paper, the EDEs are "operating well below the minimum parameters set for an electricity company to operate." Even with the high cost of generation, the EDEs maintain a margin of 50%. This is the difference between what the EDEs pay for electricity and what they charge their clients for the electricity delivered. Data from the Electricity Superintendence show that the EDEs buy electricity at US$0.11 k/hr and they sell the energy at an "average" price of US$0.21 k/hr. Even so, the distributors are registering huge losses that no renegotiation can solve. The problem is with the management, according to the paper. According to the "Energy Monitor" document put out by the Ministry for Technical Affairs, during the first semester of this year, the EDEs barely invoiced 64.1% of the energy that they had purchased from the generators. Right off the bat, they are losing 35.9%. Adding further insult to injury, the EDEs only averaged a collection rate of 87%, which means that they lost an additional 13%. This 44.5% loss cannot be rectified through any sort of renegotiation.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#5)
Diario Libre added insult to injury by reporting how the EDEs lose 44% of all the energy they purchase and charge their clients very high prices for the electricity that they do provide. According to the paper, the EDEs are "operating well below the minimum parameters set for an electricity company to operate." Even with the high cost of generation, the EDEs maintain a margin of 50%. This is the difference between what the EDEs pay for electricity and what they charge their clients for the electricity delivered. Data from the Electricity Superintendence show that the EDEs buy electricity at US$0.11 k/hr and they sell the energy at an "average" price of US$0.21 k/hr. Even so, the distributors are registering huge losses that no renegotiation can solve. The problem is with the management, according to the paper. According to the "Energy Monitor" document put out by the Ministry for Technical Affairs, during the first semester of this year, the EDEs barely invoiced 64.1% of the energy that they had purchased from the generators. Right off the bat, they are losing 35.9%. Adding further insult to injury, the EDEs only averaged a collection rate of 87%, which means that they lost an additional 13%. This 44.5% loss cannot be rectified through any sort of renegotiation.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#5)