The United States Trade and Development Agency awarded a technical assistance grant to the Dominican Republic’s Superintendent of Electricity (SIE) that will facilitate the growth of renewable energy generation in the country. The USTDA grant will help create enabling regulations for battery energy storage systems to maintain the stability of the country’s power grid as new wind and solar power plants are built. USTDA and SIE announced their collaboration during the COP26 summit.
“Across the Caribbean, USTDA is supporting the development of climate-smart infrastructure solutions to strengthen the region’s resilience to climate change,” said Ambassador Vinai Thummalapally (ret.), acting director of USTDA. “Our partnership with the Dominican Republic will allow them to develop regulations that facilitate the reliability of their electricity infrastructure, while opening the country to the renewable energy solutions that U.S. companies are prepared to offer.”
USTDA’s technical assistance will include a market analysis of the demand for battery energy storage system technologies, a review of existing regulations, and an in-depth gap analysis. Through this analysis, new technical and financial regulations will be recommended to support the deployment of battery energy storage systems throughout the Dominican Republic’s electricity system.
“This technical assistance, which will enable the implementation of energy storage technology in the country, will help address regulatory gaps present in the current regulations and provide the necessary recommendations for technical and financial regulations,” said Superintendent of Electricity Rafael Velazco. “As a result, this smart method of energy storage and management will allow for more productive electricity, better grid management, and increased service stability and availability.”
This activity supports the Biden Administration’s Small and Less Populous Island Economies Initiative, an economic cooperation framework designed to strengthen U.S. collaboration with island countries and territories in the Caribbean, North Atlantic and Pacific regions. It also supports USTDA’s Global Partnership for Climate-Smart Infrastructure , which connects U.S. industry with major transportation and clean energy infrastructure projects in emerging markets.
U.S. companies interested in submitting proposals for USTDA-funded technical assistance should visit www.ustda.gov/work/bid-on-an-overseas-project .
