Dominican Republic officially joins the Council as it seeks to diversify its energy mix

 

 

The Council welcomed the Dominican Republic as its 96th member committee, while promoting diversification in the country’s energy mix, at  launch event held at the Technological Institute of Santo Domingo (Intec), last month.

During the ceremony, World Energy Council, Secretary General, Dr Christoph Frei, highlighted the challenges and opportunities facing the energy sector and stressed diversification of the energy matrix as a way to  work towards what the Council calls the energy trilemma: energy security, energy equity and environmental sustainability.

He stated that the system must be evaluated as a whole, since many people today still do not have access to electricity and costs must be reduced.

Discussions explored possibilities for diverse forms of generation in the future, such as solar within the Republic and wider region. Increasing the Dominican Republic’s renewable energy share to 27% of its final energy mix, would result in significant financial savings.

 

 

“The question is how we lower costs, expand access and increase security with the best available technology that is constantly changing at this time. Creating strategies and policies to create a balance in these three aspects and diversification is the center of the trilemma.

“We are delighted to welcome the Dominican Republic as our newest member. We look forward to working with the team at a time where an unprecedented speed of change in technologies, cyber and extreme weather risks presents both challenges and opportunities for countries and energy companies within the region.”

Rudy Manuel Ramirez Perez, President of the Dominican Republic committee, said:

 

The newly formed member committee is currently in the process of devising a Strategic Plan on resilience which would reduce the country’s vulnerability to major storms such as Hurricane Maria.

The recent events of Hurricane Maria has acted as a catalyst for government and utility leaders of the Dominican Republic, together with international partners and the private sector, to build back stronger and cleaner sustainable, resilient power and transportation systems. With rising seas and stronger and more frequent storms, the task becomes even more vital.

The Dominican Republic officially became a member of the World Energy Council on 12 September bringing the total number of countries where the Council has activities to 98.