The Department of Energy of the United States announced the approval of permit for Project Hostos. Caribbean Transmission Development Co., LLC (CTDC) had applied to the US Department of Energy (DOE) for the US Presidential Permit to allow for the construction, connection, operation, and maintenance of facilities for transmission of electric energy at the international border between the United States Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (Puerto Rico) and the Dominican Republic.
The permit allows for a submarine cable capable of transmitting up to 700 MW of bidirectional energy. The timeline of the project estimates the completion of the project by January 2031. The cable will span approximately 150 km (93 miles) across the Mona Passage, connecting a new natural gas plant in the Dominican Republic (San Pedro de Macorís) to the Mayagüez substation in Puerto Rico.
The facilities covered by and subject to the permit include facilities and all supporting structures within the right-of-way occupied by such facilities: Two 320-kV high voltage direct current underwater cables crossing the United States-claimed exclusive economic zone (EEZ) boundary at latitude 18.4127°N, longitude 68.0783°W.
The US government review concluded that the interconnection does not pose a risk to US national security and would significantly improve the energy resilience of Puerto Rico’s grid by providing a “black start” capability.
The US Department of Energy (DOE) review concluded that “Project Hostos would not have a negative impact on the reliability of the US electric grid if operated consistently with Luma’s policies and standards, terms and conditions of the Presidential permit, and other regulatory and statutory requirements.” Luma is a private Canadian-American company, based in San Juan, Puerto Rico, that operates and manages the electric power infrastructure in Puerto Rico.
Based on DOE’s reliability determination and recommendations of the Department of State and Department of War, and the public comment process, DOE determined that the issuance of a Presidential Permit to CTDC “is consistent with the public interest.”
The DOE established that pursuant to the provisions of E.O. 10485, as amended by E.O. 12038, permission is granted to CTDC to operate and maintain electric transmission facilities between Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic.
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US Department of Energy
US Department of Energy
Diario Libre
Diario Libre
2 March 2026