Approval of submarine cable between DR and Puerto Rico is pending publication

Montecristi.- The approval of the energy interconnection project between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, by the United States Government, is pending publication.

This is how the Minister of Energy and Mines, Joel Santos, explained it, following the information released by President Luis Abinader himself, about the fact that said project already had the approval of the Donald Trump government.

“That project plans to work all this year on its financial planning, start construction around 2027 and would be in operation in 2031, and would be an important advance in energy and logistics,” explained Santos.

Through this cable, Puerto Rico will be able to receive from the Dominican Republic up to about 700 MW, generated by natural gas, in order to reduce blackouts on the island of enchantment.

Following the passage of Hurricane Maria in 2017, the energy crisis on the island of Puerto Rico has been worsening, affecting more than 1.4 million users with increasingly long and constant interruptions.

2025 has been the peak of the crisis, both transmission lines and generation sources have become obsolete and blackouts cause social unrest and protests.

Even the new year of 2025 was received under a major blackout that affected more than 90% of the population.

However, the Dominican Republic also faces a generation deficit, due to the delay in the operational entry of several generators, which forced the Dominican Government to urgently contract a barge with a generation capacity of 260 MW, which was added to two others installed in 2022 and 2023 and whose contracts expire in 2026.