The general administrator of the Dominican Hydroelectric Generation Company (EGEHID), Engineer Rafal Salazar, announced government plans to build two dams to generate 52 megawatts of energy and control flooding in Elías Piña. The construction would also contribute to reduce sedimentation of the Peligre Dam in Haiti. The Artibonito Project would be contracted to a Brazilian construction company, Construtora Queiroz Galvao. Construction would last four years and would begin in the summer of 2021.
The first dam would be built in El Corte to send the water through a tunnel to the machine house downstream, and generate 42 megawatts of electricity through two turbines of 20 megawatts each. The second counter-dam at Pedro Santana would be 17 kilometers downstream and would generate 10 megawatts, through two turbines of 5 megawatts each.
“It is a great project, which implies binational coordination, because the river is born in the Central Mountain Range in the Dominican Republic and ends in Haiti. It will bring great benefits to the communities of Bánica and Pedro Santana. It will provide energy to the National Interconnected Electric System (SENI). It will control the floods and provide thousands of jobs during the period of execution of the work,” said Salazar.
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EGEHID
18 September 2020