President Hipólito Mejía has given green light for Unión Fenosa and Enron Dominicana to build a 500-megawatt natural gas plant and natural gas terminal in Punta Caucedo. News reports indicate that this would be a thermoelectric combined cycle plant that would use natural gas. The dual project calls for a US$550 million investment. The announcement was made by Ignacio de Alvaro, representing Unión Fenosa, and Javier Marrero for Enron Dominicana, a company affiliated to Enron Corporation. The promoters of the project say that the natural gas plant and terminal will contribute to improve quality of the air, reduce risk of contamination of water, ground and the coastal marine ecosystem. The project would be fully financed by its promoters and could be in operation in late 2002. Earlier this year, AES announced the construction of a 300-megawatt natural gas plant in the same area. AES and Unión Fenosa companies are the power distributors in the DR. Originally, the privatization contract established that generators and distributors of power would be separate companies.
