Someone is lying about Dominican Republic’s blackouts

Santo Domingo.- The Dominican Republic is once again thevictim of rolling blackouts heightened by the outage of major power plant ofthe company AES Dominicana, but also come as the country is expected to renegotiatethe energy supply contracts known as the notorious Madrid Agreement in June.

The blackouts likely prompted Sate-owned Electric Utility (CDEEE)CEO Rubén Jiménez and Central Electoral Board (JCE) president Roberto Rosarioto guarantee on Wednesday “no inconveniences with the electric energy” on electionday.

The outages also reveal that either the country’s biggest powercompany, AES Dominicana or the CDEEE isn’t coming clean on their real cause:The former shuts down a 226-megawatt power plant "for annual maintenance," while the latter points to “commercialreasons.”

"The shutdown is the result of maintenance andcommercial reason," the CDEEE said in a press release Tuesday

Moreover, outlet diariolibre.com quotes sources to report a“veiled jockeying for position among strong interests ahead of tenders forcontracts for buying and sell energy, scheduled for June.”

In a statement on March 23, the CDEEE acknowledged that fourpower plants went offline, causing a deficit of 460 megawatts.

"Under the above excuses blackouts occur when a newscheme to negotiate energy contracts gets closer (…) due to the expiration ofthe Agreement of Madrid."