Electricity sector in the Dominican Republic

Electricity sector of Dominican Republic

Data
Electricity coverage (2006)	88% (total), 40% (rural); (LAC total average in 2007: 92%)
Installed capacity (2006)	3,394MW
Share of fossil energy	86%
Share of renewable energy	14% (hydro)
GHG emissions from electricity generation (2003)	7.63 Mt CO2
Average electricity use (2003)	1,349 kWh per capita
Distribution losses (2005)	42.5%; (LAC average in 2005: 13.6%)
Transmission losses (2006)	4.7%
Consumption by sector (% of total)
Residential	44% (2001)
Industrial	30% (2001)
Commercial	10% (2001)
Tariffs and financing
Average residential tariff (US$/kW·h, 2005)	0.140; (LAC average in 2005: 0.115)
Average industrial tariff (US$/kW·h, 2005)	0.146; (LAC average in 2005: 0.107)
Average commercial tariff (US$/kW·h, June 2005)	0.231
Services
Sector unbundling	Yes
Share of private sector in generation	86%
Competitive supply to large users	Yes
Competitive supply to residential users	No
Institutions
No. of service providers	10 main (generation), 1 (transmission), 3 (distribution)
Responsibility for regulation	SIE-Electricity Superintendence
Responsibility for policy-setting	CNE-National Energy Commission
Responsibility for the environment	Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources
Electricity sector law	Yes (2001, amended 2007)
Renewable energy law	Yes (2007)
CDM transactions related to the electricity sector	1 registered CDM project; 123,916 tCO2e annual emissions reductions

The power sector in the Dominican Republic has traditionally been, and still is, a bottleneck to the country's economic growth. A prolonged electricity crisis and ineffective remedial measures have led to a vicious cycle of regular blackouts, high operating costs of the distribution companies, large losses including electricity theft through illegal connections, high retail tariffs to cover these inefficiencies, low bill collection rates, a significant fiscal burden for the government through direct and indirect subsidies, and very high costs for consumers as many of them have to rely on expensive alternative self-generated electricity.^[1] According to the World Bank, the revitalization of the Dominican economy depends greatly on a sound reform of the sector.^[2]