Upscale sectors are deadbeats, get blackouts

Santo Domingo.- The State-owned electric utility (CDEEE) and the electricity distributing companies (Edes) began naming the sectors which don’t pay their entire bill and therefore don’t qualify to surpass the D classification, the lowest in cash recovery.

The Utility said the upscale sectors Arroyo Hondo and Puerta de Hierro have long blackouts because of the lack of payment, despite the many upper class people who live there.

In a statement, Edesur said the reason Puerta de Hierro gets prolonged outages, is because energy theft is too high, for which the zone is category D on electricity losses that exceed 40%.

It said Puerta de Hierro is supplied an average of RD$1.2 million worth of energy monthly, but Edesur collects barely RD$700,000.

CDEEECEO Celso Marranzini said it’s a shame that upscale sectors such as Puerta de Hierro fail to a pay for the electricity supplied. “Edesur’s Social Management Team has met with the neighborhood boards several times to agree on ways to eradicate the zone’s accumulated fraud.”

The official added that the community has even resisted efforts to regularize the grid, by Edesur’s use of changing to underground cables.