Best and worst areas for BLACKOUTS!!

Expat13 · #1 10-03-2009, 10:35 PM

Curious what are the best areas of the city, as far least amount of blackouts.

As I surf in supercasas and see rental prices all over the map, i feel the consideration of electrical outages should be a more important factor when locating a business or home residence-obviously these blackouts can be very critical to our daily quality of life, as well for businesses-very costly to the bottom line.
Usually myself, its not until you actually move and live in an area, that you realize the harsh reality of what your up against-of course the landlord rarely tells it like it is.
I would love to see a caveat or term of the contract that read " if more than X numbers of blackouts in X period of time constitutes as detriment to my standard of living- therefore nullifying the contract with 30 days notice of proof of the above.(good luck on that lol).
Something like this...Best areas to live as far as fewest blackouts per month and shortest downtime.List your barrios sector and your experience as stated above.
Myself i would have loved this type of information a year ago.

Example areas yet not excluding others

Piantini/Naco
Bella Vista
Mirador Norte
Gazcue/Colonial
Zona Univ/La Julia
Env. Morale/Quisqueya
Millones/Castellana
Los Prados/Julieta

Would be good to mention in the post how many days per month on average-and how many hours down per day avg. Also when posting confirm their exact barrio as too many to lists.

Anyway i appreciate honest informative feedback which i feel can help many posters, in their future property searches- that being said please hold back on the "you live in the DR what do you expect yada yada".
Thanks in advance friends!

johnny · #2 10-04-2009, 12:41 AM

I live in Alameda. we have 24 hours electricty all year around. we dont really need an inverter. We are having some blackouts since last 4 or 5 weeks, 2 or 3 times a day. but in total not more than 2 hours a day, which is a lot to me, but better than other zones.
I have office in los cacicazgos, lived there for more than 20 years. not problem at all. but the same having some blackouts last weeks.
Have a condo in Costa Azul. I do not live there, so I can tell exactly, but neigbourhs say that in normal conditions we have an average of 4 hours without electricity. It could be more right now.
living in a rich areas such as naco, arroyo hondo, piantini DO NOT GUARANTEE 24 hours electricity. because sometimes they have some poor barrios around who do not pay electricity. the best example is Arroyo hondo and Los Rios which are surrounding by very poor barrios.
For my experience Los Cacicazgos and Alameda, are the best areas to live without blackouts. Cuesta Hermosa and los Pinos has also not blackouts, but they have their own electricity.
Bella vista is a rich area, but have many friends that live there and they have some blackouts. they say around 2 hours average a day.
If 100% of the houses where you live pay electricity, you wont have any problem. (in normal conditions, NOT NOW)
if there are some barrios around, you will be paying the electricity they dont pay. and sometimes they consume more than you. you will have some blackouts.

Expat13 · #3 10-04-2009, 01:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnny

I live in Alameda. we have 24 hours electricty all year around. we dont really need an inverter. We are having some blackouts since last 4 or 5 weeks, 2 or 3 times a day. but in total not more than 2 hours a day, which is a lot to me, but better than other zones.
I have office in los cacicazgos, lived there for more than 20 years. not problem at all. but the same having some blackouts last weeks.
Have a condo in Costa Azul. I do not live there, so I can tell exactly, but neigbourhs say that in normal conditions we have an average of 4 hours without electricity. It could be more right now.
living in a rich areas such as naco, arroyo hondo, piantini DO NOT GUARANTEE 24 hours electricity. because sometimes they have some poor barrios around who do not pay electricity. the best example is Arroyo hondo and Los Rios which are surrounding by very poor barrios.
For my experience Los Cacicazgos and Alameda, are the best areas to live without blackouts. Cuesta Hermosa and los Pinos has also not blackouts, but they have their own electricity.
Bella vista is a rich area, but have many friends that live there and they have some blackouts. they say around 2 hours average a day.
If 100% of the houses where you live pay electricity, you wont have any problem. (in normal conditions, NOT NOW)
if there are some barrios around, you will be paying the electricity they dont pay. and sometimes they consume more than you. you will have some blackouts.

I am not sure on this-but does not Alameda and Los Pinos have barrio areas close by.
over the past year i lived in Naco/Piantini border from Sept-november--frequent daily blackouts and no water.
Bella Vista from November to March-Perfect-3-4 short term blackouts todo in the the 4 month period-
Mirador Norte, in the nicer newer buildings area-march to now--frequent daily blackouts and the odd latenight no A/C at night blackouts...
My experience puts Bella Vista first yet i hear much about Gazcue areas very good as well but difficult commuting in and out of the city if required.

johnny · #4 10-04-2009, 09:54 AM

there are 2 Alameda
Alameda East has not barrio close, and Alameda West has a barrio San Miguel next to, but they are in different circuit. 100% of the houses here pay the bill.
the problem in bellla vista and Naco Piantini area are that they have a barrio inside with a big population who does not pay electricity.
Los Pinos has their own electricity as well as Cuesta Hermosa (those are the 2richest area in SD)
I think it´s very good that you have started this thread. It´s could be very informative if anybody give their opinion of the specific area where they live.
I know there more be many small areas around the city that are really 24 hours circuits, or at least has between 22-24 hours electricity.
To be more accurate. do not count last 6 weeks period.

rubio_higuey · #5 10-04-2009, 02:27 PM

Your best bet is to determine what is the circuit category of the area where you want to live. A peak on the (neighbor's, landlord's) electricity bill will show you the circuit number and category (A is the best, denominated 24 hours) and the percentage the circuit was available in the invoicing month.

E.g. Here in Higuey I live in an area covered by circuit "HIXX-XX Categoria A - Disponibilidad 94.38%) - this is for month of August 2009. Considering there are 720 official service hours in every month, a 5.62% unavailability (blackout) translates to 40.5 hours per month - on average 1 hour and 20 minutes per day.
There are many days when there is no a minute interruption (maybe even a week in a row) and then boom - you get 3, 4 or 5 hours of blackout.

You should chose the Category A, because when all hell comes loose (meaning the dreaded "Deficit de Generacion" which I call "Deficit Financiero") the "A" circuits are the last ones to "go" and the first ones to "come back" and are the ones with the lowest time "off".

Officially, A should get 24 hours, B should get 21 hours, C should get 18 hours per day, and so on ... Also, poor barrios around a rich neighborhood do no necessarily mean that circuit is lower category - they may be on two different circuits, and even if they are not, the total recollections matter (anything over 80% will bring A category) --- now you see how awful is electricity bill collection in the DR --- for example, a "C" circuit gets about 50-60% collection of all usage , per month, a 70% gets you a "B". I know this from a (former) local EDE director in Higuey who was my acquaintance.

So, the FIELD WORK is what will help you. Don't ASK how the power is in the neighborhood, ask to SEE the EDE-bill.

Hope this helps ...

Adrian Bye · #6 10-04-2009, 02:46 PM

great thread!

I knew a guy in la vega who was living on the corner of 2 streets and managed to tap into 2 separate grids of edenorte. when one went out, he switched over to the second.

mountainannie · #7 10-29-2009, 08:40 AM

sorry I did not see this thread

I have lived in Gazcue for the last three years and have actually never had a black out of more than a few hours... and RARELY have one at that.. By rarely, I mean, perhaps once every two months. Usually the power may go out for less than a half hour.

People willl tell you that this is because this is the grid with the Presidential Palace and I am sure that is the case since certainly I have heard the POP of the transformers blowing (WHAT is up with that, did someone just plug in an iron, is it like blowing a fuse?) but they will fix it very promptly.

I do not have an inverter and have never considered getting one.

TOOBER_SDQ · #8 10-29-2009, 09:19 AM

My area is not on the list. Probably because I live on the "wrong" side of the river. It is a area called Mirador del Este, which is very close to Los Tres Ojos. Surprisingly, to some, there is a teeming Expat population on the east side.

In my area there are very few black out periods. Maybe 2 per week which last 30 minutes to an hour each. Occasionally (once per month) I have noticed periods of 4 hours, but this is because a transformer needs to be serviced/ replaced etc.

GALK · #9 10-29-2009, 03:01 PM

I live in Naco, Corazones Unidos area, 2-3 blackouts per week for an hour each.
Its the presidents circuit, I hope he doesn't move away.
In the last 12 years we had only 2 horrible years, the end of Hipolitos period.

Expat13 · #10 11-08-2009, 07:09 PM

Are we having exceptional times right now (in a negative way)?

Last year i lived in Bella Vista for 4 months-i remember maybe 3-4 blackouts for short durations during these times.

I just moved back to Bella Vista this past 2 weeks and have been experiencing blackouts almost daily, along with water rationing from the city.

I thought i lived in a upper class area where things were good.

Bella Vista residents!-Is this past months blackouts normal, or is it exclusive to my street-block-building etc.??