Blame Govt. for power plant outage, but consumers pay

Santo Domingo.- The opposition Democracy Alliance (APD) party warned Mon. that the government aims to raise fuel prices, to compensate for the energy deficit once the AES Andrés power plant in Boca Chica went off line.

APD senior leader Carlos Sanchez said the government won’t be able to force AES Andrés to pay for the damages, as State Electric Utility (CDEEE) CEO RubénJimenez Bichara, affirmed Mon.

He said it was the government itself that through permanent pressure prevented AES from taking the plant off line to submit it to scheduled maintenance.

Sanchez said the government will have to seek an additional US$49.0 million each month during the next six months, to compensate for the energy that AES Andrés won’t supply, which totals RD$14.0 billion.

Debt

“A second exit to which the Dominican government could resort would be to increase the debt by taking new loans to alleviate the deficit created recently in the electricity system,” Sanchez added.