Inter-American Development Bank
facebook
twitter
youtube
linkedin
instagram
Abierto al públicoBeyond BordersCaribbean Development TrendsCiudades SosteniblesEnergía para el FuturoEnfoque EducaciónFactor TrabajoGente SaludableGestión fiscalGobernarteIdeas MatterIdeas que CuentanIdeaçãoImpactoIndustrias CreativasLa Maleta AbiertaMoviliblogMás Allá de las FronterasNegocios SosteniblesPrimeros PasosPuntos sobre la iSeguridad CiudadanaSostenibilidadVolvamos a la fuente¿Y si hablamos de igualdad?Home
Citizen Security and Justice Creative Industries Development Effectiveness Early Childhood Development Education Energy Envirnment. Climate Change and Safeguards Fiscal policy and management Gender and Diversity Health Labor and pensions Open Knowledge Public management Science, Technology and Innovation  Trade and Regional Integration Urban Development and Housing Water and Sanitation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Caribbean Development Trends

  • HOME
  • CATEGORIES
    • Agribusiness
    • Antigua and Barbuda
    • Barbados
    • BehaviorChange
    • Belize
    • Bermuda
    • biodiversity
    • Blockchain
    • Caribbean
    • Caribbean Culture and Media
    • Climate Change
    • Creative Economy
    • Crime Prevention and Citizen Security
    • Data and Knowledge
    • De-risking
    • Dominica
    • Dutch
    • Early Childhood Development
    • Economic Growth
    • Education Policy
    • energy
    • entrepreneurship
    • Environmental and Climate Change
    • Events
    • Extractives
    • Finance
    • Fiscal Rules
    • gender
    • Governance and Regulatory Policy Reforms
    • Grenada
    • Guyana
    • Haiti
    • Health
    • Health Policy
    • Hurricane
    • Hurricane Irma
    • infrastructure
    • Innovation and change
    • Intellectual Property
    • IWD
    • Jamaica
    • JumpCaribbean
    • Labor
    • Labour Markets
    • MOOC
    • Music
    • Natural Disasters
    • Nurturing Institutions
    • OECS
    • Podcast
    • Poverty
    • Private Sector and Entrepreneurship
    • Saint Kitts and Nevis
    • Saint Lucia
    • Saint Vincent and Grenadines
    • skills
    • Sports for Development
    • Suriname
    • Technology
    • The Bahamas
    • The Blue Economy
    • Transportation
    • Tourism
    • Trinidad and Tobago
    • Uncategorized
    • VAWG
    • Webinar
    • women
    • Women for Change
    • youth
  • Country Offices
    • Bahamas
    • Barbados
    • Guyana
    • Jamaica
    • Trinidad and Tobago
    • Suriname
  • Press Releases
    • Bahamas
    • Barbados
    • Guyana
    • Jamaica
    • Trinidad and Tobago
    • Suriname
  • Authors

Dominican Republic’s Energy Market

November 27, 2013 by Carlos Sucre 6 Comments


Dominican Republic – Energy Matrix & Regulatory Framework

With a gross domestic product (measured at PPP) of USD 90 billion and a population of 10.3 million people, the Dominican Republic is the largest economy in the Caribbean and has the largest population after Cuba. Its energy matrix is dominated by the import of fossil fuels as primary sources (crude oil, natural gas and coal) and as secondary sources (products derived from crude oil). Domestic sources of energy include biocombustibles – mostly firewood and some bagasse – and hydro.

Electricity coverage is above the Latin American average, at around 96%. According to OLADE, the Dominican Republic has around 3,000 MW of installed capacity for electricity generation. This generation capacity is mainly thermoelectric with 2,469.23 MW (82.5% of the installed total). It is important to note that there has been significant growth in installed capacity of plants using coal and natural gas in recent years. The rest is mostly made up of hydroelectric ge­neration at about 525 MW. This capacity is used to generate about 15,000 GWh per year.

The economy consumes around 115 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day broken down by oil products (54%) for transportation purposes, firewood (23%) mostly in residential consumption, and electricity (20%) for the industrial, residential and commercial sectors

The National Energy Commission (CNE) is responsible for designing policies and is the main public agency involved in the Dominican energy sector. In the hydrocarbon subsector, regulation is the responsibility of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce (MIC). In the electricity subsector, the re­gulatory body is the Superintendency of Electricity (SIE).

The most important participant in the electricity subsector is the Dominican Consortium of State Electricity Companies (CDEEE), which includes the only transmission company, the three distribu­tion companies, the monopoly on hydropower (with an installed capacity of 525.5 MW) and the only completely public thermal generation company (1.9 MW). The rest of installed capacity (ther­mal generation) is distributed among 12 private and mixed companies (the State has a 49% share) that have an installed capacity of 2,434.2 MW, which represents 82.3% of the total in the National Interconnected Electricity System (SENI). Electricity rates to final consumers are fixed monthly by the superintendence.

In the hydrocarbon subsector, the State participates in 51% of the only refinery in the country REFI­DOMSA, which has a capacity of 35,000 bbl/day and supplies approximately 25% of the local fuel demand. Private companies control transport and marketing. Fuel sale prices are fixed weekly by the MIC.

Energy sector policies are currently defined by the National Energy Commission (CNE), created in 2001 by the General Electricity Law. The commission is headed by the Secretary of Industry and Commerce and includes several secretaries of State such as Finance, Agriculture, Environment, the governor of the Central Bank and the director of the Dominican Institute of Telecommunications.

The CNE is responsible for developing and coordinating projects of legal and regulatory rules, propo­sing and adopting policies and standards, preparing indicative plans, proposing them to the Execu­tive and ensuring compliance, promoting investment decisions in coordination with those plans and advising the Executive.

dominicanrepublic_2

Following the guidelines of the General Electricity Law, in 2004 the CNE presented the National Energy Plan (PEN) 2004-2015. The PEN defines energy policies in the country until 2015. The main objectives are: 1. To ensure the security and efficiency of the supply; 2. To promote efficient mana­gement of demand and rational energy use; 3. To develop national energy resources; 4. To reduce energy system vulnerability and external supply; 5. To increase coverage and improve the quality of energy service in rural and semi-rural communities; 6. To provide an appropriated institutional, legal and regulatory framework.

In the Dominican Republic there is no agency dedicated to regulating the whole energy sector. The Superintendency of Electricity (SIE) was created to regulate the energy subsector (General Electricity Law). In the hydrocarbon subsector, the main agency in charge of regulation is the Ministry of Indus­try and Commerce (MIC), which controls the Hydrocarbon Directorate, the Directorate of Rules and Systems Quality (DIGENOR), the Specialized Body of Fuel Control (CECCOM) and the General Direc­torate of Mining. In this subsector, however, other State institutions participate in regulation like the Ministry of Finance, the SIE and the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, among others.

The Superintendency of Electricity (SIE), like the CNE, was created by the General Electricity Law in 2001. Its creation includes an autonomous body with its own assets that has a directory whose members are nominated by the CNE and must be ratified by the National Congress.

The Ministry of Industry and Commerce (MIC) through the Directorate of Hydrocarbons is partially responsible for regulating the hydrocarbon subsector in the country. Its main functions include esta­blishing weekly fuel prices and monitoring the implementation of policies and regulations that govern the hydrocarbon market. In addition, under the MIC is the Directorate General of Rules and Systems Quality (DIGENOR), which is responsible for controlling fuel quality and the Specialized Body of Fuel Control (CECCOM), which was created to enforce regulations related to security and control in the process of fuel distribution and marketing.

Other State institutions also have some regulatory activities in the hydrocarbon subsector. Among those are: (i) the Ministry of Finance and its Directorate of Customs and the Department of Fuel Control; (ii) Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources; (iii) Dominican Oil Refinery; (iv) Central Bank, in the sub-department of importing petroleum and its derivatives; (v) the Dominican Electricity Corporation; and (iv) the Superintendency of Electricity.


Filed Under: Climate Change & Environment, Economy & Investment, Social Systems Tagged With: coal, crude oil, Dominican Republic, electricity, energy, energy market, fossil fuels, gas, hydroelectric, import

Carlos Sucre

Carlos G. Sucre is an extractive sector specialist at the Mining, Geothermal Energy and Hydrocarbons Cluster of the Infrastructure and Energy Sector at the IDB. At the IDB, his work has focused on the mining and hydrocarbons sector, covering mostly Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Panama and Venezuela. He is also an adjunct professor of energy security at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He holds a master’s degree in international political economy from George Washington University and a double bachelor’s degree in economics and political science from the University of Chicago.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. DominicanRepublicGuide says

    April 10, 2015 at 6:01 pm

    hopefully some day situation with electric power will improve in Dominican Republi

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Follow Us

Subscribe

Search

Caribbean Dev Trends

We provide unique and timely insights on the Caribbean and its political, social, and economic development. At the IDB, we strive to improve lives in the Caribbean by creating vibrant and resilient economies where people are safe, productive and happy.

Similar posts

  • Suriname’s Energy Market
  • Haiti’s Energy Market
  • Saint Vincent and the Grenadines’ Energy Market
  • Jamaica’s Energy Market
  • Trinidad and Tobago’s Energy Market

Footer

Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo
facebook
twitter
youtube
youtube
youtube

Blog posts written by Bank employees:

Copyright © Inter-American Development Bank ("IDB"). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons IGO 3.0 Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives. (CC-IGO 3.0 BY-NC-ND) license and may be reproduced with attribution to the IDB and for any non-commercial purpose. No derivative work is allowed. Any dispute related to the use of the works of the IDB that cannot be settled amicably shall be submitted to arbitration pursuant to the UNCITRAL rules. The use of the IDB's name for any purpose other than for attribution, and the use of IDB's logo shall be subject to a separate written license agreement between the IDB and the user and is not authorized as part of this CC- IGO license. Note that link provided above includes additional terms and conditions of the license.


For blogs written by external parties:

For questions concerning copyright for authors that are not IADB employees please complete the contact form for this blog.

The opinions expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the IDB, its Board of Directors, or the countries they represent.

Attribution: in addition to giving attribution to the respective author and copyright owner, as appropriate, we would appreciate if you could include a link that remits back the IDB Blogs website.



Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2023 · Magazine Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo

Aviso Legal

Las opiniones expresadas en estos blogs son las de los autores y no necesariamente reflejan las opiniones del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo, sus directivas, la Asamblea de Gobernadores o sus países miembros.

facebook
twitter
youtube
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
Cookie settingsACCEPT
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

Non-necessary

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.

SAVE & ACCEPT