The Dominican Republic’s national transmission utility, Empresa de Transmisión Eléctrica Dominicana, S.A. (ETED), is moving forward with crafting the full set of technical, financial, and regulatory rules that will open the door for private sector participation in battery energy storage systems (BESS), a critical infrastructure upgrade designed to reinforce the reliability, adaptability, and quick response capacity of the country’s National Interconnected Electric System (SENI).
This strategic push stems from the long-term vision laid out by ETED Executive Vice President Engineer Alfonso Rodríguez Tejada, who has prioritized modernizing the nation’s transmission grid to meet the evolving pressures facing the Dominican power sector. These challenges include steadily rising consumer and industrial energy demand, the rapid growth of variable renewable energy generation that is being added to the system, the growing need for fast-acting adjustments to shifting grid conditions, and the expanding strain on infrastructure driven by the country’s ongoing economic expansion.
BESS technology delivers unique value to power grids by storing excess electricity when generation outpaces current demand and discharging stored power back into the system when energy needs peak. This core functionality directly supports a range of critical grid outcomes: it smooths out voltage and frequency fluctuations to keep the grid stable, streamlines overall system operations, removes barriers to integrating larger shares of wind and solar generation, and bolsters the overall security of the nation’s energy supply.
Building on productive initial discussions held during an information session with SENI market stakeholders focused on BESS investment opportunities, ETED is currently in the procurement stage for specialized third-party technical assistance. This external support will guide the agency through three key foundational steps: validating different grid integration scenarios, defining clear eligibility and technical criteria for private projects, and designing the competitive procurement mechanisms that will be used to select private developers in a future bidding phase.
The contracted specialized firm will work closely alongside ETED’s in-house BESS Working Group to build data-driven models of how different battery storage deployments would integrate into the existing SENI grid, identify which grid services deliver the highest priority value to the system, and analyze feedback submitted by private sector stakeholders during the agency’s first call for expressions of interest in the project.
Preliminary planning for the initiative outlines a target reference capacity of up to 600 megawatts / 1,200 megawatt-hours of total energy storage, built out using a flexible modular design that allows for future expansion as the system’s needs grow. The entire project is focused on two core national goals: strengthening the daily operation of the SENI grid and accelerating the Dominican Republic’s ongoing clean energy transformation.