Dominican Rep looking to modify battery energy storage cap

The Dominican Republic’s national energy commission CNE is reviewing requirements for the installation of battery energy storage systems (BESS) to make them more economically viable.

CNE planning and development director Ramón Moya made the comment during a local energy and mining resources event.

“We currently require storage starting at 50MW, but we are considering lowering this threshold to make it more accessible and attractive to project developers,” a commission release quoted the official as saying. Additional information was not disclosed.

Last year, the CNE published complementary norms for the incorporation of BESS for variable renewable energies (VRE).

Read Dominican Republic establishes battery storage conditions and requirements for Power Generation Projects

A study from the energy and mines ministry’s energy transition project concluded that the use of BESS leads to a considerable reduction of VRE curtailment while achieving target reserve margins.

The norms and study are available in the Documents box in the top-right corner of the screen.

For its part, power regulator SIE has been working with the US Trade and Development Agency on the preparation of a BESS regulatory roadmap, with support from Nexanteca, Resource Innovation and FEM Consulting Group.

Also read Great interest in installing solar energy projects with storage and First solar park with storage begins

Meanwhile, CNE and Ardavín Solar signed the definitive concession contract for an 83.4MWn (101.6MWp) project in Gaspar Hernández, Espaillat province that includes BESS (27.5MW and 110MWh).

And BAS Corporation and Dominion put into operation the La Victoria solar park (58.48MWac, 64.7MWp) in Santo Domingo Norte.