The Dominican electricity sector has experienced significant improvement compared to previous decades, said the Minister of Energy and Mines, Antonio Almonte, on Tuesday, noting that the majority of Dominicans perceive it day by day with the delivery of more energy, higher quality of service and in a more sustained.
The official said that at present between 98 and 99 percent of the energy demand is supplied, despite the fact that it is bought increasingly expensive, but it is sold cheaper than before, due to the high margin in the price of energy purchased from the generators and, furthermore, because for more than 10 years the rate remained practically frozen.
In an article published by the Hoy newspaper this Tuesday, Almonte said that the administration headed by President Luis Abinader has been able to advance important structural reforms by obtaining approval for the signing of the Electricity Pact.
He indicated that this management has managed the complete dismantling of the inefficient state-owned corporate electricity conglomerate that implied the CDEEE.
He pointed out that, with a view to achieving an increasingly efficient electricity sector, in recent months the current government management has reduced the payroll expenses of the Electricity Distribution Companies (EDE) at a sustained rate of 8.8 million pesos.
“During the period from January to October of last year, for example, the distributors bought energy at an average price of 10.79 US cents per kilowatt-hour. [10.79 ¢US/KWh] and they sold it at 14.36 ¢ US / KWh, for a margin of 3.57 ¢ US / KWh.
He added that in the same period of this 2021 the distributors bought at 12.27 ¢ US / KWh and sold at 13.98 ¢ US / KWh, for a margin of only 1.71 ¢ US / KWh.
“We can affirm that the distributors are still far from being efficient in any sense, but it is a falsehood, an exaggeration and even an injustice, to say that they have worsened,” says Almonte in the publication.
He argued that evaluators from international agencies and organizations have known the behavior of the electricity sector for decades and for the first time in this century are observing the beginning of a sustained positive change.
He emphasized that as a result of the liquidation of the Dominican Corporation of State Electric Companies (CDEEE) and the transformation of the Rural and Suburban Electrification Unit (UERS), the Government’s expenditures in the sector were reduced by 3 thousand 655 million pesos in 12 months as reported by the Ministry of Energy and Mines.
He cited that another of the improvements that the electricity sector has experienced has to do with the collection rate of EDEs, which went from 93% last year to 96% this year.
He said that in January 2021 EDES collected 97.2 million dollars and ten months later, in October, they collected 142.4 million dollars, a 46.5% jump in collection efficiency in less than a year.
In the article, entitled “The electricity sector is better now”, the engineer Almonte highlighted that the electricity system is experiencing a promising period of pro-investment activism by the private sector, local and foreign, in conventional projects and in renewable sources.
