The Hostos Project, which aims to generate electricity in the Dominican Republic and transmit it through a submarine cable to Puerto Rico, plans to build a power generation plant in the province of San Pedro de Macorís, from where electricity would be supplied to the neighboring island.
This was confirmed in an interview with Diario Libre by Rafael Vélez Domínguez, President of Caribbean Transmission Development Company (CTDC), the company promoting the project, who stated that total investment is estimated at US$2.5 billion.
Vélez Domínguez explained that the power plant to be built in Dominican territory is designed to operate using natural gas and to be capable of burning green hydrogen once it becomes commercially available. The facility will supply electricity exclusively to the Puerto Rican market.
“We will not be taking capacity away from the Dominican Republic’s National Interconnected Electric System, although the plant will allow interconnection in case of emergency,” he stated.
He also revealed that CTDC will work jointly with the Dominican and Puerto Rican governments to develop the regulatory framework—currently nonexistent—so that electricity can be exchanged between both jurisdictions.
The CTDC President indicated that the company has received, on an unofficial basis, authorization from the United States Department of Energy, together with a no-objection opinion from the United States Department of State and the United States Department of Defense.
“Once we are formally notified, and after obtaining the required permits in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, we will proceed to place purchase orders for the main equipment, namely the generation plant, the power converter and the submarine cable. These are assets with long manufacturing lead times and very high demand due to the expansion of artificial intelligence, which is why we need to place these orders as soon as possible,” he explained.
He added that the company’s schedule still contemplates 2031 as the year in which electricity sales would begin, although certain civil works are expected to start in 2027.
“We are confident that we have secured the presidential permit that legitimizes the project, since the Government of the United States considers it viable and in the best interests of the people of Puerto Rico,” he said.
Results of the studies
Regarding the technical assessments for the development of the project, the President of Caribbean Transmission Development Company stated that the results of the conceptual and basic engineering studies confirm the project’s technical feasibility.
“Sufficient engineering documentation was submitted for the U.S. Department of Energy to approve the project. In addition, studies were conducted with LUMA Energy, the operator of Puerto Rico’s transmission and distribution network, in order to properly understand how the electricity would be integrated into the system and what impact it could have,” he concluded.
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