Even though the president Luis Abinader announced last Wednesday that the submarine cable that would energetically connect the Dominican Republic with Puerto Rico It has already been approved by the US governmentfrom the project development company it was reported that have not received an official notification from the Donald Trump administration.
Rafael Velez Dominguezpresident of Caribbean Transmission Development Company (CTDC), company promoting the Hostos projectdeclared that even have not received an official notification of Department of Energy of the United States (DOE, in English), but that the communications of “no objection“from the Departments of State and Defense.
In statements to the newspaper The New Dayfrom the neighboring island, Vélez Domínguez expressed that they are still waiting for the presidential permission.
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“They informed us, officially, that they have already received the no objection from the Department of State and the Department of War (Defense), and we are waiting any day for the presidential permit. Certainly, the president of the Dominican Republic made an announcement; I imagine that he knows something that I do not know. Officially, we have not received a communication that we have the presidential permit,” he stated.
Abinader revealed to media representatives that the Trump administration approved the project electrical interconnection between both territories, with the objective of contributing to the stability of the Puerto Rican electrical system.
The Puerto Rican media, however, revealed that the official announcement should be done next February 17 in the Dominican Republic, at an event in which the Creole president and the governor of Puerto Rico, Jennifer Gonzaleztogether with representatives of the US government.
The publication establishes that on the portal of the Department of Energy of the United States, the agency that processed the presidential permission –authorization that is required for the development of the cross-border project–, the CTDC request still appears as “earring” of determination.
By January 2031
The president of the CTDC explained that, after completing the process at the federal level, the equipment for the construction of the cable would be purchased, which would allow transmission up to 700 megawatts of electricity. Caribbean Transmission Development Company has stipulated the goal of energizing the cable to January 2031.
In Dominican territory the cable would be connected to a new natural gas plant that the company would build for use in the project, while in Puerto Rico It would be linked to the system through the Mayagüez electrical substation.
