Renewable energies market in the Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic (DR), with a population of 11 million people and 98% electricity coverage, has an interconnected national grid that supplied 21,170 gigawatt hours (GWh) net of electrical energy in 2023. Moderate projections estimate that annual demand will increase to around 30,000 GWh by 2030.

There are currently 1,745 megawatts (MW) installed of renewable energies (RE) in the DR, divided as follows: 675 MW of photovoltaic energy, 630 MW of hydroelectric energy, 417 MW of wind energy, and 30 MW of biomass.

There are also approximately 1,150 MW of additional RE projects in the pipeline that are expected to enter the system between 2024 and 2026. Foreign investment in renewable energies in the DR reached US$1,976M in the period of 2018-2022.

Key opportunities for Canadian RE companies in the DR:

Wind and photovoltaic (PV) technologies: Both wind and solar PV generation have the greatest potential for growth in supplying electricity to the national grid. Canadian companies have significant investment opportunities in renewable energy generation and commercialization. Solar PV has the greater potential to supply distributed generation on and off-grid systems for industry and for individual users. This creates opportunities for providing equipment and accessories for ground and rooftop solar PV, including mounting racks, and net metering or invoicing solutions.

Waste to energy: There is significant potential in bioenergy, with over 350 open landfills identified across the country. However, realizing this potential requires the Executive branch of government to take the initiative to work with municipal authorities to establish clear policies and procedures for entering into transparent and fair development agreements with interested companies. Municipal authorities have historically been a major barrier to biomass projects utilizing waste, often due to unreasonable demands and financial expectations.

Energy storage: Currently, none of the utility-scale renewable energy parks operating in the DR have energy storage capacity. However, in February 2023, the National Energy Commission (CNE) issued Resolution CNE-AD-0004-2023, which requires all new utility-scale renewable energy projects with installed generation capacity of over 50Mw to have energy storage capacity. Projects with capacities between 50Mw and 100MW will need to have storage for 30% of its capacity. Projects between 101MW and 200MW are required to have storage for 50% of its capacity. This new measure presents opportunities for Canadian firms with proven energy storage capabilities.

Notable challenges for Canadian RE companies in the DR:

Regulatory: There is a risk involving potentials changes to the policies, regulation, and implementation plans due to a lack of a common vision and continuity of plans from government to government, even within the same party. It has affected the DR's risk evaluation by foreign and local developers, and the related cost of financing for both equity and loans.

Institutional: In addition to the regulatory challenges, the poor coordination between the various government institutions that have a negative effect on the RE market. While there are ongoing initiatives to enhance coordination and revise policies and procedures, significant work remains to be done.

Commercial and economic: Significant and persistent economic losses at the distribution level, both technical and non-technical, have historically created delays in payments to generators, adding to the country's risk perception. In the past, overdue debt to generators averaged 3 to 5 months of receivables. Recently, the current administration has successfully eliminated and minimized these delays, improving the overall financial stability of the sector.

Transmission capacity: The DR's national transmission grid nearly reached saturation in 2021-2022. While the much-needed revamping and extension of the grid is currently underway, approvals for interconnection of new REs are on hold. This situation creates uncertainty for developers and financing institutions as it is difficult to precisely estimate dates for commercial exploitation of RE parks in the pipeline.

Concession process: Stakeholders involved in concessions have expressed concerns about the numerous and detailed requirements, permits, and sub processes across the various institutions involved. The process can be very cumbersome and time-consuming and persistent follow-up is necessary to avoid delays obtaining the concessions. The final stage for the connection contract with the transmission company also needs close monitoring. According to some sources, human resources (business, technical, and legal) are needed on the ground to achieve timely completion.

Municipal permits: The municipal permitting process has been a source of delays and discrepancies in project implementation. Currently, municipalities can evaluate and assess taxes and fees to the project at their discretion, without a pre-established methodology or formula. Therefore, even after completing the permitting process, project developers can find out that municipal taxes will be much larger than budgeted. Besides the uncertainty regarding the financial aspects of a project, this is also creates delays because construction of the project cannot start until the permits are granted.

Dominican Republic business landscape:

The installed generation capacity of the country is owned almost completely by the private sector, except for the coal-fired Central Punta Catalina (720 Mw) and hydro generation, which are owned and controlled by the DR Government. The transmission company, Empresa de Transmisión Electrica Dominicana (ETED) is also owned and operated by the Government. There are three distribution companies (EDEs) that operate in defined concession areas. EDEs all have residential, commercial, industrial, and institutional clients under regulated tariffs. Generators supply energy to the EDEs under Power Purchasing Agreements (PPAs) and can also enter negotiated contracts directly with large unregulated consumers (UNRs), which have loads equal or greater than 1 MW. They can also transact energy and power between themselves. The EDEs are also allowed to sell to UNRs.

The DR has a total installed capacity of 5,675 MW, which includes some obsolete thermal generators, as well as renewable energy technologies. In the last decade, there was a considerable shift of fuels for generation from fuel oils to natural gas, and combined cycles, making natural gas the main source of generation in the country. From the total energy produced and injected to the system in 2023, 40% was from natural gas, 31% was from coal, 17% was from renewable energies, and 12% was from fuel oil.

There is a wholesale market (Mercado Eléctrico Mayorista) for electrical energy, firm capacity, and ancillary services (frequency and voltage regulation). This market has hourly spot transactions, as well as bilateral short, medium, and long-term contracts between generators, distribution companies, and UNRs. There is thus a spot market and a term contract market. The physical dispatch and commercial transactions are overseen by a regulator (Superintendencia de Electricidad) and a system administrator (Organismo Coordinador). The distribution companies can own generation, up to 15% of the demand of the area they serve. They are also obliged to publicly bid any energy and capacity that they wish to buy under contract from generators.

Summary

The Dominican Republic has very good investment opportunities for renewable energy projects, especially photovoltaic and wind. As the implementation of renewable energy generation keeps increasing steadily, the Government has been working to eliminate some challenges in transmission capacity that were hindering the sector's expansion. The DR also has opportunities for technologies and solutions related to distributed generation.

For more information on the renewable energies market in the Dominican Republic please contact Regis Batista at regis.batista@international.gc.ca