Blackouts spike with the heat: up to 20 outages a month

Extreme heat is testing the Dominican power system. Demand reached a historic record of 4,330.80 megawatts (MW) on July 30, and overload blackouts multiplied: according to data from the Electricity Superintendency (SIE), Edenorte went from 13.78 monthly outages per customer in January to 19.95 in April, while Edesur rose from 12.94 to 17.81 and Edeeste from 8.80 to 13.25.

Heat that breaks records

Heat indexes reached between 43 °C and 48 °C in Greater Santo Domingo and up to 50 °C in areas like Santiago Rodríguez. The massive use of air conditioners spiked consumption: the system broke its historical power mark several times during July, up to the 4,330.80 MW recorded on July 30 at 9:03 pm.

Blackouts from overload, not lack of power

The Minister of Energy and Mines, Joel Santos, has insisted that the outages are due to local faults and overloads on transformers and low- and medium-voltage networks, not a generation deficit. In fact, the system has an estimated nighttime availability of between 4,400 and 4,700 MW, once the contribution of the nearly 1,780 MW of daytime solar energy ceases.

What the Government is doing

Facing the heat wave, the Ministry of Energy and Mines issued Resolution R-MEM-ADM-019-2026, requiring public institutions to regulate the use of air conditioners and turn off unused equipment at peak hours. In addition, Joel Santos asked the population to set air conditioners between 23 °C and 24 °C and urged Congress to pass an Energy Efficiency Law.

The key figure

4,330.80 MW: the new demand record of July 30. A sign that the Dominican summer not only brings heat: it brings the hardest test for the country’s power system.