martes, febrero 28, 2006

DR1: Blackouts Cost Verizon US$3 Million

According to Verizon Dominicana president Jorge Ivan Ramirez, the energy crisis not only affects his company but all the country's productive sectors, making it less competitive compared to other nations. Verizon has to spend approximately US$3 million per year in the purchase of electric generators, maintenance, UPS and other equipment due to the unstable service provided by the power distributors, as reported by El Caribe. Ramirez admits that the government is taking steps to solve the energy crisis and said that he hopes that the plan being implemented is successful, as the country's development depends on it.

An Unorthodox Solution to Blackouts

On Thursday 2 March, at 7pm at the Academy of Sciences, Dr. Jose Antonio Vanderhorst-Silverio PhD, Academy of Sciences member and a graduate of Cornell University, will give a speech on "Electricity Without Price Controls: key element of a robust globalization insertion strategy." Dr. Vanderhorst-Silverio's thesis is that by integrating the National Electric Interconnection System (NEIS) electricity market with the informal, Everyone For Himself (EFH) electricity supply security market, a new branch of insurance of electricity insurance can be created to fill a vacuum, for example in business interruptions due to power interruptions. While the NEIS retail market is under price controls, EFH is prospering WPC. Electricity WPC is a key element for the competitive advantage it generates, as it will be the first in the world to exploit the comparative advantage of a large EFH market, and a le! ading edge telecommunication sector. The strategy is robust because it doesn't depend on future uncertainty, since the result will be an efficient value-added electricity rationing system. His proposal is that the physical or economic integration of the EFH's market emergency generators and inverters to NEIS's market can be done with telecommunications, advanced meters, and software. The innovation requires a restructuring reform of the electricity sector to separate the competitive generation and marketing activities from the natural transportation monopolies of distribution and transmission of electricity. In industry after industry, price controls have been found to be inefficient with arbitrary rationing. The event will be held at the Academy of Sciences building, on Calle Las Damas, at the intersection with El Conde in Santo Domingo's Colonial Zone. The American Chamber of Commerce is encouraging business people to attend the talk.