President Danilo Medina and Andres Gluski, CEO of AES Corporation, presided over the inauguration of the 50 km Eastern Gas Pipeline (Gasoducto del Este) and the ground-breaking for the construction of a 120,000 CM storage tank to facilitate additional gas throughout the eastern region. The new liquefied natural gas storage tank to be added to the Punta Caucedo, Boca Chica terminal expands the AES natural gas storage capacity in the Dominican Republic by 80%.
The Eastern Pipeline is under construction for the supply of natural gas to 750 megawatts of generation units located in eastern provinces. The power plants previously operated using fuel oil and are expected to be fully converted to natural gas in the first half of 2020.
A new corporation, Enadom will distribute gas to the eastern region of the Dominican Republic through the pipeline. Enadom’s first president is José Miguel Gonzalez Cuadra. Edwin de los Santos is the corporation’s first CEO. De los Santos is also CEO of AES Dominicana. Enadom was formed through the 50%-50% alliance between AES Dominicana and Energas (InterEnergy Group Ltd, Energía de las Americas, S.A. and Inalla Holdings).
“We are on the verge of breaking our dependence on oil,” said Gonzalez Cuadra. He spoke of the diverse energy matrix of the Dominican Republic’s, where its 3,702.8 megawatts of installed capacity now comes from 11 different sources of generation. Of these, 22% are renewable sources.
The first client of the Eastern Gas Pipeline was the Barrick Pueblo Viejo mining company with the signing of an agreement in May 2018. AES Andres supplies the mining firm with natural gas.
Andres Gluski, during his remarks, said that by 2023 natural gas generation should replace fuel oil, with the country reaching a fundamental and historic milestone in the modernization of the Dominican energy matrix by using an abundant fuel that guarantees more stable and more competitive prices than those derived from oil.
Also present at the table of honor for the event were Edwin de los Santos, CEO of AES Dominicana and Enadom, InterEnergy’s Rolando Gonzalez Bunster, Osvaldo Oller Villalon (Domicen), Juan Ignacio Rubiolo, president of AES Mexico, Central America & the Caribbean, and US Ambassador Robin S. Bernstein, Ruben Jiménez Bichara, executive vice president of the Dominican Public Electricity Corporation (CDEEE), and Feliz García and Manuel Estrella, partners of AES Dominicana, among others.
The 50 km pipeline covers the municipalities of Boca Chica, Guayacanes, Quisqueya in San Pedro de Macoris. It is a US$100 million investment. Construction was by the Consorcio Conducto-Estrella, a joint venture between Conducto of Peru and the Dominican engineering firm, Grupo Estrella.
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18 December 2019