The Dominican Republic has set an ambitious target to get 10% of its electricity supply from renewable sources (including large hydro) by 2015, rising to 25% by 2020. As of December 2016, 13% of the nation’s total 14.7TWh came from clean energy generation.
The Organismo Coordinador del Sistema Eléctrico Nacional Interconectado was created in 1998 to coordinate the Dominican Republic’s electricity generation, transmission and distribution. The Ministry of Energy and Mines was created at the end of 2014 and develops energy policies, while the Superintendencia de Electricidad regulates and oversees the country’s electricity sector. The state-owned Empresa de Transmisión Eléctrica Dominicana is the sole transmission company in the country and is responsible for operating the national system.
Although generation is open to private players, it is still dominated by state-owned assets. The distribution segment is divided into three public companies: Edeeste, Edenorte and Edesur. All the state-owned companies are managed by the Corporación Dominicana de Empresas Eléctricas Estatales.
In 2016, the Dominican Republic had a total installed capacity of 4GW. The bulk of it was represented by oil and diesel (2.2GW), natural gas (723MW) and coal (314MW). Large hydro represents 440MW, small hydro 170MW, wind 133MW and solar 36MW.
Energy planning for renewable power dates from the mid-2000s. In 2004, the government published the Plan Energético Nacional (PEN), which defined energy policies in the country until 2015 and aimed to contribute to the Dominican Republic’s sustainable development, ensure energy security, lower the costs of electricity and reduce its environmental impact.
Since May 2007, following the guidelines of PEN, an incentive regime for the development of clean energy sources has been in place. It includes an investment tax credit, external financing, tax reductions, exemption from tax on transfer of industrialized goods and services, and import duty exemption. Renewable energy generators have dispatch priority and open access to transmission and distribution.
The Dominican Republic also has a net metering program, which allows retail electricity consumers who have renewable self-generation facilities to interconnect with the distribution company, deliver surplus generation to the grid and obtain a billing credit. As of April 2017 there was a total of 42MW of generation under the country’s net metering program.
On August 18, 2015, the government of the Dominican Republic submitted its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution to the United Nations, committing to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 25% by 2030, compared with 2010 levels. This reduction is conditional upon favorable and predictable support, feasible climate finance mechanisms and corrections to the failures of existing market mechanisms. To achieve the target, an estimated $17 million of mitigation actions in the energy, transport, forestry, tourism, solid waste and cement sectors will be required.