The power blame game

[NewsWhore]

The government has reported that of the eight major problems facing the energy crisis, five are rooted in distribution, and that only three are related to power generation or the current energy contracts. Diario Libre reports that this conclusion was reached in a document analyzing the impact of the energy sector on public finance. The document was compiled by the Presidential Technical Minister's Office. The eight problems include: power generation, high dependency on petroleum energy production, poorly structured billing with improper indexation formulas, technical losses due to lack of investment in transmission and distribution, and no bidding for the energy contracts. In addition, the large-scale energy debt, a culture of fraud and theft, and the inability to charge for energy have weakened the energy sector. Diario Libre also reports that in the last three years the subsidies on the energy sector, totaling close to RD$90 billion, have usurped resources that could have been used for education and health. The subsidy, which this year is approaching RD$18 billion, is only paid out to keep the system operating at a deficit. Adding to the energy sector's frustrations is the report that the energy bill for October should have decreased by 3.7%, but it did not, and will stay the same in order to compensate for the accumulated loss of money this year.

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