President Hipólito Mejía was in Andrés, Boca Chica yesterday to be present at the start of the construction of the first natural gas plant to be built in the DR. AES Corporation will build the plant that will have an electrical capacity of 300 megawatts using a combined cycle. The company is investing US$330 million. Sara Slusser, vice president of the building company, told the Listín Diario newspaper that the plant will be the largest and most modern in the country. "AES Andrés is a revolutionary project for the DR as it introduces natural gas. Natural gas is cleaner, more efficient and more economic than diesel. The present fuel crisis makes the benefits of natural gas even more apparent," she pointed out during the event. The power plant is located on 25 hectares, five kilometers south of the Port of Andrés, Boca Chica and 3.5 kilometers east of the Las Americas International Airport. An estimated 400 workers will be employed to build the plant. Once the plant is operational, by summer 2002, 500 permanent jobs will be created. A first phase will operate on gas producing 170 megawatts; a second phase will generate 130 megawatts, using steam. The company also announced plans to build a natural gas pipeline. AES owns two diesel-operated plants in Santo Domingo, and has the concession to provide electricity to approximately 400,000 users in the eastern portion of the DR. In addition to its operations in the DR, AES currently owns or has an interest in one hundred and five power facilities totaling over 32,000 megawatts in the United States, Canada, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Panama, Mexico, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh the Netherlands, Hungary, Kazakhstan, China and the United Kingdom. AES also distributes electricity to nearly 14 million customers. For more information on the company, see http://www.aesc.com
