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Of the 2,730,285 houses counted in the country two years ago, 47% (1,117,789) did not have an electricity meter, while 33.3% (790,212) have a meter and 19.5% (462,284) pay a fixed rate. In other words, 66% of houses do not have meters.

Diario Libre reports that the data obtained from the National Survey of Income and Expenses in the Home 2007, carried out by the National Statistics Office (ONE), says that in individual houses (1,834,201) 574,426 have meters, and 889,936 do not.

Out of more than 257,000 rooms, shacks and back-yard housing units, some 48,000 have meters (18.6%), and in barracks (generally built for flood victims or families displaced by hurricanes) there are only 1,472 meters (11.8%).

Only 6.3% of the houses (160,189) use other sources of energy. According to a study by the National Business Council (CONEP) last May, each consumer or group of consumers should have an electric meter and pay for the energy consumed. CONEP points out that to donate or subsidize energy without any metering or limit is to convert an expensive service into a free service.