Protecom faces backlog of 38,000 electricity consumer complaints

The Office for the Protection of the Electricity Consumer (Protecom) in the Dominican Republic ended the first quarter of 2026 with 38,813 pending files, according to expert Marino Hilario. This backlog, alongside rising electricity bills and persistent blackouts, is being cited as evidence of structural failures in the oversight of electricity distribution companies.

During the period between January and March 2026, Protecom received 14,791 new claims. The distributor Edeeste accounted for a significant portion of the delay, accumulating 6,498 claims and ending March with 18,100 pending files, nearly half of the national total.

While Protecom reported issuing 8,310 favorable resolutions during the quarter, Hilario noted a lack of transparency regarding the total monetary impact of these decisions, the average resolution time, and whether distributors are actually implementing ordered credits or corrections. He argued that these mass complaints should serve as an early warning system for the Superintendency of Electricity (SIE) to investigate systemic issues in metering or billing processes rather than being treated as isolated administrative tasks.