He Hostos projectwhich seeks to produce energy in the Dominican Republic and transport it through an underwater cable to Puerto Rico, would build a generation plant in the province San Pedro de Macoris from which it will supply electricity to the neighboring island.
This was communicated in conversation with Free Diary, Rafael Velez Dominguezpresident of Caribbean Transmission Development Company (CTDC), the company promoting the work, who indicated that the investment in the project would amount to 2.5 billion dollars.
Vélez Domínguez clarified that the plant that they would build in Dominican territory, which is designed to operate at natural gas and to “burn” green hydrogen when it is commercially available, it is to supply energy exclusively to the Puerto Rican market.
“We will not be stealing capacity from the National Interconnected Electrical System of the Dominican Republic, although the plant will allow interconnection in case of emergency,” he declared.
He revealed that they will work with the Dominican government and that of Puerto Rico to develop the regulations, which to date have not existed, “so that we can exchange electricity between both countries”
The president of the CTDC stated that they unofficially received permission from the United States Department of Energy, with a no objection of the State Department and that of War.
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“Once formally notified, in addition to obtaining permits in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, we will proceed to place purchase orders for the largest equipment, which are the generation plant, the (energy) converter and the cable. They are equipment that takes a long time to manufacture and is in high demand due to artificial intelligence, which is why we have to try to place those orders as soon as possible,” he explained.
He stated that in the company’s schedule the year 2031 as the period in which they will be selling electricity, although he noted that there are some civil tasks that they must begin to carry out in 2027.
“We feel confident that we got that presidential permission that legitimizes the project, given that it is already the Government of the United States that understands that this is viable and that it is in the best interests of the people of Puerto Rico,” he stated.
Study results
Regarding the studies for the construction of the electrical work, the owner of the Caribbean Transmission Development Company reported that the results of the conceptual and general engineering studies indicate that the project is viable.
“Enough engineering was submitted for the Federal Department of Energy can approve the project, just as studies were carried out with lumawhich is the operator in Puerto Rico of the transmission network and distribution to fully understand how energy enters the system and the effect it could have,” he said.
