Santo Domingo.- On Tuesday, Minister of Energy and Mines Joel Santos announced that the transformers needed to address the issues at Edesur Dominicana are expected to arrive in the Dominican Republic soon.
This update came during the inauguration of the new minister amid ongoing complaints about the distributor’s poor conditions, including its reliance on repaired transformers.
Celso Marranzini, president of the Unified Council of Electricity Distribution Companies (CUED), explained that using repaired or rebuilt transformers is an acceptable emergency measure due to delays in acquiring new materials, particularly for Edesur Dominicana. Marranzini attributed the current critical situation at Edesur to inefficient purchasing planning and a recent heat wave, which has increased energy consumption and damaged many transformers.
He noted that Edesur currently lacks available transformers and has had to borrow some from Edeeste. In 2022, Edesur ordered 900 transformers from China, paying a 20% advance. However, the previous administration failed to send an inspector to China to verify the equipment’s quality, causing delays in shipment. It was only on August 1 of this year, under new management, that a technician was sent to inspect the equipment.