Santo Domingo.- In a few years the country won’t have the electricity needed to meet the demand unless investments in the millions materialize, though the sector’s currently crucial problem are the losses of around 40% of the kilowatts placed on line.

Dominican Electrical Industry Association (ADIE) president Marco De la Rosa said there’s been progress since 2007, albeit little, for which US$3.4 billion would have to be invested in generation, power lines and distribution in the next the five years or it will be impossible to meet the energy demand by 2012.

He said US$2.5 billion of those funds would be needed on generation, to diversify the energy grid as well as to improve the existing facilities.

Interviewed by the Corripio Communications group, De la Rosa also noted that a US$300 million investment is needed in the power lines and US$600 million in distribution to expand the medium and low tension networks, to increase coverage and reduce losses.

He said the energy demand this year is 1,900 megawatts and up to 2,000 in peak hours.

A proposal

De la Rosa, who’s also president of the group AES Dominicana, said the electrical sector’s recovery is possible with a plan which includes topics such as infrastructure, subsidies, governance and response to the consumer.

As to infrastructure, the business leader affirmed that the distribution networks need expansion and updating for integration to the transmission systems, as well as to diversify the grid.

On subsidies De la Rosa proposed it only for consumption of less than 200 kilowatt-hours, and the elimination of the Blackouts Reduction Program.

The proposal includes aspects such as promotion of private investment, penalizing electrical fraud, honoring the payments in the supply chain and to bolster institutionalism.

Recover consumer confidence, foster a culture of payment and create awareness on the efficient use of energy are the ADIE president’s other proposals, voiced while the country faces yet another of the many electrical crises which lead to more rolling blackouts.

The Key

De la Rosa said more than US$2.0 billion were invested in the electrical sector since its capitalization in 1999, because business confided in the country’s institutionalism, which led to duplicating its generation capacity by 2003.

Regarding distribution, he said the losses were reduced from 40% to 25%.

He said the sector’s collapse came after the 2003 financial crisis, caused by the three important fraudulent bank failures.