Energy companies that use seawater to cool their systems are now confronted by problems created by floating seaweed. There are several such major generating stations along the coastline.
Claudio Irish, superintendent for operations for Ege Haina, told Diario Libre that sargassum affected the service of Itabo 1 and 2 in Santo Domingo last week. The units supply some 260 MW to the national electricity grid.
Likewise, in southwestern Barahona, Ramon Then, plant manager at the Ege Haina Barahona plant that provides 45MW to the system, said that since 2014 the volume and frequency of sargassum has increased progressively.
Another primary electricity generation plant, Punta Catalina, which has yet to go online full-time, also uses seawater to cool the coal-fired boilers that move the generators. According to sources at the National Interconnected Electricity System (SENI), when Punta Catalina goes online, more than 50% of all the electricity produced for the system will depend on seawater to cool down their motors.
Journalist Marvin Cid of Diario Libre reports that several actions are being taken to reduce the impact of the seaweed on the generation systems. Drones are watching for sargassum out in the ocean, a vessel will be purchased to collect vegetation offshore before it reaches the intakes, and research is being carried out on uses for the collected seaweed.
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Diario Libre
24 June 2019