Dominican Republic and Haiti to connect power grids

An agreement was signed

Dominican Republic and Haiti on Tuesday took the first step to link their power grids, an ambitious plan to bolster both countries’ energy security and create a market of around 20 million people, and lower electricity prices.

National Energy Commission (CNE) director Enrique Ramirez, and Haiti Energy Security minister René Jean-Jumeau signed the agreement, but cautioned that progress depends of a clearly defined project, access to financing, as well as the technical and social relations between the two countries.

For now the pact deals only with coordinated projects under bilateral and international organizations, but intends to expand gradually, as cooperation strengthens.

“Energy security is one of the benefits interconnection brings. If any problem occurs in one country, the energy service can be supplied by the other. It also expands the market, since if any Dominican generation system has a surplus it can sell energy to Haiti and vice versa”, Ramirez said.

For the officials, interconnection should be a priority for both nations, calling it Hispaniola’s imminent energy future. Jean-Jumeau stressed the importance of developing relations in energy and of building “a future together”, before the onslaught of hard-to-solve crises without mutual help.

Ramirez and Jean-Jumeau acknowledged the weaknesses of each country’s energy system, but warned against government lethargy.

Dominican Republic Live, From DT, 30.01.13, 12.15pm

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