The EDES-LP-NGR-01-2025 tender marked a turning point for the Dominican Republic's electricity market. The process received bids for approximately 1655 MWp , compared to an initial demand of 600 MW, but concluded with the contracting of only 325.69 MW of new renewable capacity with storage .
Behind one of the winning projects was A&A Business Intelligence Group AABI SRL (AABI Group) , the firm that advised Taíno I on the technical, economic, and contractual structuring of its proposal. The park secured an 84.70 MW allocation within the most competitive price bracket of the tender.
In a dialogue with Energía Estratégica, Augusto Bello, private energy advisor for AABI Group , analyzed the strategy that allowed the project to be positioned among those selected and explained why the tender failed to complete the 600 MW initially planned.
“ In terms of market demand, the process was a resounding success ,” Bello stated.
The participation of 32 companies and the volume of bids, close to three times the required power, showed that there is capital willing to develop renewable projects with batteries in the Dominican Republic.
According to the specialist, the call confirmed that " the Dominican Republic has consolidated itself as an attractive destination for renewable development with storage ."
However, the final result also revealed a significant gap between developers' appetite and the capacity actually contracted by the Electricity Distribution Companies.
The allocation was distributed among Taíno Park I, Batoncillo Solar Park, Mella Solar Power, Esperanza Wind and Esperanza Solar , with prices ranging between USD 0.106 and USD 0.109 per kWh .
The mechanism that reduced the bidding
According to AABI Group, the reduction from the planned 600 MW to the contracted 325.69 MW was not due to a lack of projects or a shortage of competitive bids.
The consulting firm maintained that the result was mainly linked to the economic methodology defined to construct the demand curve and determine the volume that could be awarded.
“ The cut was due exclusively to the awarding mechanism and, above all, to the allocation of the 'Maximum Admissible Cost' and the 'Lower Maximum Admissible Cost' ,” Bello explained.
According to the firm's analysis, as both values moved away from one cent per kWh , the demand function became increasingly steep and progressively reduced the MW that could be allocated.
This caused the process to conclude before covering the volume called for, despite having an oversupply of more than 1600 MWp.
Consequently, approximately 300 MW remained pending contracting , after the next proposals in economic order exceeded the reference price allowed by the methodology.
The analysis also revealed that price was a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for being in the winning group.
The winning bids were concentrated within a narrow economic range. Therefore, the quality of the studies, financial stability, and the maturity of the projects became of paramount importance.
“ The process, implicitly rather than explicitly in the terms and conditions, ended up rewarding the combination of competitive pricing with proven executable performance: complete interconnection studies, bankability, and developer maturity ,” the energy advisor stated.
This reading helped explain why large-scale projects, even those with competitive economic values, were left out of the final cut.
The location of the connection point, the available capacity on the network, and the consistency of the electrical analyses ended up weighing as much as the price offered.
For AABI Group, this selection sent a positive signal to the market, as it reduced the probability of awarding initiatives that would subsequently be unable to secure financing, complete the works, or connect within the established deadlines.
The Taíno I formula
Taíno I submitted one of the most competitive bids in the call, with a price lower than USD 0.107 per kWh .
The proposal combined 101 MWp of solar capacity and 84.70 MWac , accompanied by a storage system designed as an integral part of the project.
“The price level achieved by Taíno I is not explained by a single factor, but by the simultaneous strength of the project's technical and financial package ,” Bello emphasized.
The first component was certainty regarding the solar resource. The development was supported by an energy production study using P50 and P90 scenarios, modeled in PVSyst and compared with three independent meteorological databases.
This work made it possible to reduce the uncertainty of expected generation and present an adjusted price without incorporating excessive risk margins.
The second element was related to interconnection engineering. AABI Group worked with electrical studies at DIgSILENT PowerFactory and evaluated two detailed 138 kV connection alternatives.
This preparation gave the project a solid position within a process in which evacuation capacity and the quality of the interconnection point became relevant factors.
The third variable was capital expenditure discipline. Taíno I had a bankable budget of approximately USD 100.5 million , structured to sustain the competitiveness of the offering without compromising its financial viability.
Ultimately, the contractual design lent credibility to the proposal. According to AABI Group, structuring it as a financial contract, rather than a strictly physical one, demonstrated that the development was feasible and not just an attractive figure on paper.
The combination of engineering, energy certainty, CAPEX control and financial structure placed Taíno I within the selected group.
Storage is no longer an accessory
The EDES-LP-NGR-01-2025 required that projects incorporate battery storage systems with at least four hours of duration .
In addition to shifting energy between different periods of the day, the equipment had to be prepared to provide services such as frequency regulation, ramp control, synthetic inertia support, and black start.
When asked about the importance of BESS within the proposal, Bello defined it as " central, and not accessory ".
In Taíno I, the solar plus battery configuration was worked on from the initial stage together with manufacturers and suppliers.
The goal was to avoid treating storage as an independent component and instead optimize the overall plant engineering, combined cost, and dispatch curve.
“Storage has ceased to be a regulatory complement and has become the core of the value proposition of the winning projects ,” the specialist remarked.
The battery requirement allowed the tender to incorporate renewable capacity with higher levels of firmness and manageability.
It also made it easier for solar parks to compete on better terms against technologies with different generation profiles.
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However, AABI Group warned that the economic framework still did not individually recognize all the services provided by storage systems.
“ BESS played an enabling role ,” Bello stated.
Without the four-hour backup requirement, the consultancy considered that the system would have faced greater difficulties in accepting the 325.69 MW awarded, especially under the analyzed conditions of inertia, transmission and renewable spillover.
Despite this systemic importance, " the economic valuation of storage is still incomplete ," the executive warned.
The contracted prices remunerated the energy delivered, but did not differentiate economically between frequency regulation, ramp control, synthetic inertia, or black start.
These services were included within a single tariff, although they generated specific benefits for the operation of the National Interconnected Electric System.
For the firm, the next regulatory step should incorporate capacity payment mechanisms, firm power recognition, or separate ancillary service products.
As long as that economic signal did not exist, battery development would continue to depend on processes that imposed storage as a mandatory requirement, instead of responding to a market that directly rewarded its contribution.
The network faces a portfolio that exceeds demand
The difference between the more than 1600 MWp offered and the 325.69 MW contracted also exposed the challenges that the Dominican Republic should solve to sustain its renewable expansion.
Although AABI Group attributed the specific cut in the tender to the economic mechanism, it acknowledged that transmission infrastructure and system flexibility would be decisive constraints for future additions .
“The real constraint lies in the transmission infrastructure, the operational flexibility of the system, the availability of balancing services, and the rapid incorporation of storage systems ,” Bello noted.
The firm estimated that the SENI had a systemic inertia of approximately 3.97 seconds and a frequency change rate close to 0.449 Hz per second .
Furthermore, their projections showed that renewable spillover could grow from 0.90 GWh in 2023 to 671.89 GWh in 2026 , mainly due to thermal and operational constraints.
The increase showed that adding intermittent capacity without expanding networks or flexibility resources could accelerate the underutilization of available energy.
Therefore, solar and wind growth should advance in parallel with reinforcements of transmission, storage, automation and complementary services.
For AABI Group, these investments could not be made after the projects were incorporated. They had to be planned simultaneously to prevent the new installed capacity from exceeding the energy that the system could effectively use.
Hybrid projects and standalone batteries
Following the first bidding process, Dominican authorities were preparing new processes to contract approximately 300 MW that remained unawarded .
There was also a call for proposals to install around 200 MW of storage in existing solar parks , with the aim of taking advantage of already enabled interconnection points.
AABI Group considered that hybrid projects offered the most immediate deployment opportunity.
Adding batteries to operational plants allowed for the reuse of infrastructure, reduced permitting risks, and a direct response to the growth of renewable energy.
These schemes could capture energy that was not being delivered to the grid and shift it to periods of higher demand or better prices.
In parallel, the Dominican Electricity Transmission Company expressed interest in large-scale independent battery projects.
The AABI Group report mentioned a possible addition of 600 MW of storage with a duration of four hours , equivalent to 2400 MWh .
Standalone systems served a different function than BESS systems associated with a renewable energy park.
By positioning themselves according to the system's needs, they could reinforce critical nodes, provide services to the network, and operate with a logic closer to the transmission infrastructure.
According to the energy advisor, both approaches should be considered complementary, not competitive.
Developers could capture short-term value by adding batteries to existing power plants, while developing the technical and financial capabilities needed for future standalone projects.
Is the market ready for 2000 MW of storage?
During the Future Energy Summit Caribbean, representatives of the sector anticipated a new wave of tenders and a projection of close to 2000 MW of storage during the next few years .
The interest from developers, manufacturers, and financial institutions confirmed that there was private capacity to support this expansion.
However, AABI Group differentiated between market readiness and the existence of a comprehensive enabling framework.
“ There is real preparation in the market appetite and still some preparation pending in the enabling framework ,” Bello summarized.
The volume of proposals received in EDES-LP-NGR-01-2025 proved that there was capital, experience and technology available.
The renewable portfolio could also propel the Dominican Republic towards a solar capacity close to 2 GW by 2027 , accompanied by a growing incorporation of batteries.
The challenge was to ensure that the regulation, transmission, and remuneration of flexibility evolved at the same pace as the calls for proposals.
“The Dominican market is prepared in terms of capital, technology, and developer experience, but it is not yet prepared to the same extent in terms of network infrastructure and flexibility remuneration rules ,” the energy advisor concluded.
The experience of Taíno I showed that future tenders would not be defined solely by the lowest price.
Projects should combine advanced engineering, viable interconnection points, storage, bankability, and proven execution capability .
The EDES-LP-NGR-01-2025 thus yielded two conclusions for the market: the Dominican Republic had a renewable portfolio capable of far exceeding its calls for tenders, but it should modernize its rules and infrastructure to transform that interest into firm, flexible capacity that can be effectively used by the SENI.