Dominican Rep. - Almonte: new plant is the result of government initiatives to increase energy production

This MEM release was published using machine translation.

The Minister of Energy and Mines, Antonio Almonte, highlighted that the SIBA Energy natural gas thermoelectric plant, inaugurated this Tuesday by President Luis Abinader, is the result of initiatives by the electrical team to provide the country with enough energy to supply the growing demand .

When delivering the final speech at the inauguration ceremony, held in the municipality of Boca Chica, engineer Almonte said that the modern plant was built in record time after the bidding process began at the end of 2021.

He indicated that SIBA Energy is a medium-sized, modern plant capable of working with any of two fuels: natural gas or #6 fuel oil; that it is a facility built in months, record time, and that, from 190 MW, it plans to reach up to 225 MW in the short term and that these are new megawatts that clearly increase the production capacity of our system.

He explained that in terms of electricity generation, the work of the government team was based on three main aspects:

First : guarantee that the supply or availability of power and energy is sufficient to supply the growing demand and maintain an adequate cold reserve. All this within the framework of an efficient cost and price structure.

Second : stimulate the flexibility and diversification of the generation park mainly because our country does not produce any type of fuel for electricity generation, nor does it have sufficient water resources for a greater proportion of hydroelectric energy.

And, third : facilitate the penetration of electricity generation based on renewable resources, basically solar and wind.

"These are principles and purposes clearly established in our government program, and are also part of the essence of the proposals of the Electricity Pact on generation expansion plans and transparency in contracting through competitive bidding," he emphasized.

The Minister of Energy and Mines said that it was for this reason that a few months after the start of the government, in August 2020, the preparation of an international public tender was ordered to install 800 new megawatts in Manzanillo.

"That tender, despite the severe restrictions and difficulties imposed by the COVID 19 pandemic, we managed to launch it in March 2021, it was awarded and construction work began last December," he said.

Later, in the same year, in the face of the rapid and thriving post-pandemic economic recovery, he said that the need to install new thermal generation was noted and that "this plant that we inaugurated today is a result of that initiative", in order to avoid generation deficits as a result of an electrical park with an effective capacity very close to the annual peak demand.

Almonte congratulated the members of the consortium made up of the Haina Electricity Generating Company (EGE-Haina), Monte Río Power Corporation and Natural Gas Solutions, for coming together to build the plant with an investment of 225 million dollars that have generated 400 jobs direct and 1,200 indirect jobs.

President Abinader cut the ribbon to inaugurate the thermoelectric plant and businesswoman Elena Viyella spoke on behalf of the consortium, who highlighted the transparency and efficiency of the processes arranged by the Government to give investors confidence

He affirmed that SIBA Energy is the result of the union of three local groups that have shown their trust in the authorities, which he defined as a sign of progress that shows that when processes are made more efficient, productivity increases.

The first phase of the SIBA Energy natural gas thermoelectric plant, located in the municipality of Boca Chica, is made up of 12 Titán turbines with a nominal capacity of 210 megawatts in its first stage of open cycle operation. With the development of the combined cycle it will reach a capacity of up to 280 megawatts.

Its high availability, modularity and fast charging connection allow the units to enter the electrical system in just 3 or 4 minutes, which enables it to meet demand peaks and failures or scheduled maintenance.