The increase in the international price of mineral coal, used for the electricity generation in the Dominican Republic, caused the plants of the National Interconnected Electric System (SENI) that work with natural gas to end 2021 surpassing those that operate with the first fuel in the order of merit.
Taking the last day of last year as a reference, the data shows that the two Punta Catalina plants were behind other generators that operate on natural gas, remaining as 14th and 15th in the order of merit, according to the report of the SENI Coordinating Body (OC).
The order of merit is the process through which the SENI plants enter to generate electricityaccording to the marginal costs of their operation (those that produce cheaper energy enter first).
AES Andrés, Los Mina, CESPM, Quisqueya and Estrella de Mar were among the power plants that finished above the state power plant, which saw the average price of coal rise by more than RD$9,000 per metric ton.
At the beginning of 2021, mineral coal was trading slightly below RD$2,000 per metric ton, a price that at the end of the year was above RD$11,000, an increase of more than 450%, according to OC data.
Although the average monthly price of natural gas also increased, going from less than RD$300 per million BTU (MMBTU) at the beginning of the year to just under RD$500 at the end of the period, this did not harm the plants that work with that fuel, whose variable dispatch cost ranged between RD$3,002 and RD$4,833 megawatts per hour, in addition to being the main source of generation in 2021.
The opposite was the case for plant one and two of the Punta Catalina Thermoelectric Power Plant (CTPC), whose variable dispatch cost on the last day of 2021 was RD$4,910 and RD$5,000, respectively.
The CTPC faced moments of coal shortages last year, which is why it had to reduce its production and one of its plants was taken out of operation.
Natural gas predominated as a generation source in the SENI last year, with a 39.2% share of the total (21,455.4 gigawatt-hours gross), followed by coal, with 30.7%, and then fuel oil number six, with 12.8%.
“Coal shows a decrease of 4.4%, in relation to 2020. Among the possible causes of this decrease is the scarcity that Punta Catalina presented with the supply for 12 days, from August 28 to September 8, and the increase total generation in 2021, which makes the percentage decrease in relation to the total generated; while natural gas shows an increase of 6.4% compared to 2020, due to the change to this fuel at the Quisqueya one and two plants and the CESPM one, two and three,” the report states.
