President Louis Abinader claimed the investment that his administration has made against the Dominican State to increase the generation of Energy electricity to the point where there is a surplus that serves as a reserve when contingencies occur.
The president provided detailed figures on the amount of resources that are dedicated to building generation plants with natural gas and renewable energy projects.
In total, the projects will increase the production of electricity by 2,000 megawatts between 2022 and 2026.
The international public tender to install an 800-megawatt plant and a natural gas unloading and storage terminal in Manzanillo, Montecristi, has already ended with the award of the work and “the details will be offered to the country in the next few hours.”
The head of state recalled that in December 2021 another emergency tender was launched for 400 megawatts and another for 800 megawatts of natural gas-based plants to be installed in different locations in the country. All of them add up to 2000 megawatts.
The Estrella del Mar 3 (EDM3) plant, with 142 megawatts using natural gas, was also installed and started working.
“No government had designed and launched a strategy to build power plants that would provide our system with sufficient capacity to meet demand and maintain a large reserve in case of any sudden outage of one or two plants undergoing maintenance or repair,” the president assured.
Abinader also claims to have doubled in two years the number of construction projects electricity photovoltaic that were built in the country in the last decade.
He pointed out that “we manage and sign contracts for the installation of electricity photovoltaic for an additional 620 negatives, which is more than double the solar projects that had been signed in more than a decade; In other words, during the ten years prior to this government administration, only four solar projects had been contracted and installed for a total of 187.4 megawatts of power, three times less than the 620 megawatts approved.
Three photovoltaic projects have already been completed, for a total of 200 megawatts, including the El Soco Photovoltaic Park that opened today in San Pedro de Macorís with a generation of 50 megawatts. Ten more projects are under construction, representing an investment of 800 million dollars.
“My government’s drive for these energies will continue this year with a decree containing a new regulation for the law on incentives for renewables,” he added.
The president explained that the “regulation will strengthen the transparency and efficiency of the processes for awarding contracts and concessions through competitive public bidding. The introduction of batteries or accumulators will also be encouraged for a more efficient management of the Energy captured during the day by the panels”.
He also mentioned the Solar Roof program, for the electrification of individual rural houses, which will cover some 500 families before the end of the year, today without access to the national electricity grid, in places such as La Albahaca, Higüey; Dessert Rio, Azua; San Francisco de Macorís, Rancho Arriba and others, as well as rural schools in the southern region.
The El Soco Photovoltaic Park was built by Bas Project Corporation and Dominion with financing under very comfortable conditions from Banreservas. The investment was 90 million dollars.
Located on the San Pedro Macorís-Hato Mayor highway, 3 kilometers from the Autovía del Este exit, it has more than 146,000 photovoltaic panels and 11 inverter stations.
