Power Outage Problems in Dominican Republic with a solution
One thing that might deter people from Dominican Republic is the quite often power outages. There are also ways to avoid it from effecting your living.
All countries in the world experience power outages, it's a part of life that nowhere is exempted from. In Dominican Republic with the location determines how many power outages you'll experience. I read somewhere that power outages in Dominican Republic happens almost daily and usually last for more than 10 hours, it’s not true at all. At one time some parts of the island did experience long hours without power, which was years ago and often during sleeping hours. Nowadays they’ve done a great job of cutting down power outages by a lot, but they remain. The whole country is supposed to have power 24 hours. The electricity company will inform you on their website when they are doing maintenance and give a specific time and date for when you will not have power and when it shall return, because they plan it ahead. Sometimes they tell you that the power will be off at a time, and nothing happens. Sometimes the power would go out unknowingly for a short period, and sometimes a few hours. One time we lost power in the whole neighborhood for 5 hours, that was the longest without any warning. It turned out that there was a power line down which was unforeseen. The website gave a time estimate for when it will be fixed and that was that. Dominican Republic, same as the US operates on 110-volt electricity and is generated at 60Hz (Cycles) Alternating Current. Speaking of the US, analysis say that the United States now records more power outages than any other developed country. The frequency and duration of power interruptions in the Dominican Republic are primarily due to the inadequacy and overload of the transmission system. This results in a lack of reliable power supply and can lead to system-wide power outages. Rest assured that the Dominican government has made this a priority and has been making strides over the years.
My first experience with power outage here was one to remember. A typical Dominican late evening around 8pm. The lights are on, we're watching TV, down the street music is playing from the local convenience store “colmado” and then boom! It happens, everything gets dark, and for a second, it’s actually quiet. Then you hear loud voices shout out “se fue la luz” which means the power is gone. At this point it’s obvious while sitting in the dark, but still some people feel the need to yell it out lol. Now the next part I wouldn't recommend unless it's a safe area, but it was brought to my attention to go outside. Mind you it's dark outside, the streetlights are out, and the main question is it even safe? I’m reassured that it’s safe, at the same time it feels like nothing to be worried about and that this is normal. While getting ready to go out I hear people walking by on the street with this happy tone, talking and laughing amongst each other. Ok, so now we head outside and right away I notice that there’s quite a lot of people outside just walking around. We passed by a few elders that wave and say hello with warm smiles on their faces. Right after we saw a neighbor and we stopped and talked for a few minutes. Nobody seems to be bothered by the power outage at all, in fact it's total opposite. The Dominican people seem to be more excited to go outside and talk with one another. There are people sitting in front of their homes and if they're quiet you don’t notice them until the last second. It’s funny, like they just pop up on you lol.
I wanted to go to the bank, which come to think about it, would probably be the ultimate test to see if this town was safe or not, by walking around during a power outage. The bank is in a popular area where there’s a popular plaza and they always have power. We continue our walk towards the bank, while saying hello to more strangers on the way. Once we arrived at that area of the bank, there's a line up at the ATM and a car in the plaza playing loud music. We sat across the street watching people walk by with a little dancing and enjoying themselves. This already was the greatest “blackout” experience I’ve ever known. The bank was closed, but the ATM was open. A few restaurants had lights and remained open. The music was good, and the energy was welcoming, we hung out there for some time, while other people kept coming to that area to hear music and dance. This whole time being outside, I totally forgot there was no power back at the apartment. It was a definite distraction, and it didn't bother me whatsoever, even if the power went on, I wouldn't leave until I was done being outside here having fun.
It started to lightly rain, we decided to walk on from the “party” and stroll around the neighborhood a bit. I never thought I would be walking around in a foreign country during a blackout lol, but I lived to tell it. With that being said, it became clear to me that instead of being at home feeling down about the power being out, the locals take that time to go out on the balcony or pull up a chair in front of their home and have positive conversations with each other. Some decide to go out and get something to eat or drink and hangout. People from all age groups were out, no yelling or fighting, only laughing, dancing and conversations.
As the title mentions, there's a solution to the power outage problem, and it’s not about going out and taking your mind off it. It's actually a device that you can install in your home if you're living in Dominican Republic or anywhere for example. It's called an Inverter and many of the homes and apartments have them here in Dominican Republic. More so than Solar panels, which is also popular but more costly and time consuming setting up. With the Inverter it’s under $1000, which includes the battery and installation. They are small in size and often hidden in a corner or closet of a home. Also keep in mind that it depends on the size of your home, how much power you're going to consume when deciding how many watts to choose. Either way, an Inverter saves you money on your electricity bill, by saving power that is being used through the day. Then later reusing that same power in the home. A Inverter is a great investment if you don't want any surprise interruptions randomly turning off your electricity at any given moment. A lot of the newer apartments /homes being built come with an Inverter already set up. With an inverter you'll need a battery and then you're good to go. Nothing to worry about when the lights go out. You can stay in the comfort of your home if you please, and you'll know when the power is back on, once loudly hearing some neighbors yelling “luego a luz” which means that the power is back and sometimes clapping met with joyful laughs.
"Se fue la luz!!"