Local September 28, 2024 - 11:16 am

In 2027, construction of submarine cable for electrical connection between Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico will begin

Santo Domingo – The company Caribbean Transmission, responsible for implementing the Hostos Project, the initiative for the electrical interconnection between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, through a submarine cable, reported that its construction will begin in 2027.

Yesterday, the general manager or CEO of Caribbean Transmission, Rafael Vélez, and Tirso Selman, director of the Hostos Project, announced the details of this project that will be built with an estimated investment of US$1,200 million for the installation of the cable and around US$1 billion for the generation of electricity.

The project director pointed out that the submarine cable will go from the east coast of the Dominican Republic and enter Puerto Rico on the side of the city of Mayagüez.

The purpose of the project is to provide an efficient, affordable and sustainable solution to the energy challenges faced by both islands, connecting their power grids through a 116 km high-voltage submarine cable (HVDC). It will have a capacity of up to 700 MW.

Selman indicated that the drilling for the installation of the cable will be below the sea floor, to avoid an environmental impact on the coasts of both islands.

He clarified that they have taken all measures to make it environmentally sustainable, so the energy will be from natural gas, solar and green hydrogen on the Dominican side.

Hostos Projects seeks to strengthen the networks of both countries to cover about 20% of Puerto Rico’s energy needs.

“Puerto Rico needs a lot of energy, the idea is to build additional plants to provide these energies and not take away from the Dominican electricity system,” said Velez before noting that they plan to be operational by January 2030.

It will also facilitate the creation of a bidirectional energy market, allowing both islands to exchange and trade energy surpluses, generating new economic and investment opportunities.

Selman emphasized that the high-voltage submarine cable will not take energy away from the Dominican Republic, as it will have its own generation infrastructure, and its installation is conceived with environmental criteria so as not to affect marine ecosystems.

“We made the formal request in September last year and it was accepted in December. We are working on all the environmental studies,” said Vélez, specifying that the project has not yet been approved.

Likewise, they specified that prior to the request they made a survey of the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico’s electrical network, to determine which is the best interconnection group, which technology to use and which is the best route.

Energy market

The project will facilitate the creation of a two-way energy market, allowing both islands to exchange and trade energy supplies, generating new economic and investment opportunities. Selman stressed that the high-voltage submarine cable will not take away energy from the country.

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