Energy storage tenders in the Dominican Republic are already beginning to change how solar projects are designed, evaluated, and operated in Latin America and the Caribbean. New technical and regulatory requirements are driving a transition from traditional photovoltaic plants to hybrid systems where generation, batteries, and energy management operate in an integrated manner.
During FES Caribe, Juan Manuel Rivarola , Sales Director LATAM of Antai, stated that the industry is undergoing a structural change driven by the incorporation of BESS systems, greater firmness requirements and new operational demands of the electrical system.
“ It’s no longer just about how much I generate, but how I do it, ” Rivarola stated. He added, “ It’s not about optimizing a component in isolation, but about the integration of the project .”
The statements come as the Dominican Republic accelerates its utility-scale energy development. After awarding 325 MW in its recent tender with BESS, the country is already preparing new calls for bids and projects reaching 2,000 MW of storage capacity in the coming years , as announced during FES Caribe.
This scenario is beginning to disrupt the traditional logic of renewable energy projects. As the executive explained, solar developments are moving away from linear models—where the developer defined the project, the EPC built it, and technology providers contributed relatively standard solutions—towards much more integrated configurations.
“ With the incorporation of storage systems and greater demands on energy management, the approach changes considerably ,” he stated. “ Today it’s not just about optimizing production, but about how to deliver that energy to the system .”
In parallel, the Dominican Republic has been consolidating one of the most aggressive regulatory frameworks in Latin America for BESS systems. Under Law 57-07, which incentivizes renewable energy, and the General Electricity Law 125-01, the National Energy Commission (CNE) and the Superintendency of Electricity (SIE) have advanced with specific regulations to integrate BESS systems and strengthen the operational stability of the National Interconnected System (SENI).
One of the main turning points came with the resolutions CNE-AD-0003-2023 and CNE-AD-0004-2023, where the CNE declared the need to incorporate batteries in large renewable power plants to shift solar energy to nighttime hours, provide frequency regulation and reduce fossil dependence.
However, the most significant change came with Resolution CNE-AD-0005-2024, which requires all renewable energy projects between 20 MWac and 200 MWac to incorporate BESS equivalent to 50% of their installed capacity and a minimum duration of four hours.
In practical terms, a 100 MWac solar plant must include at least 50 MW/200 MWh of battery storage. Regulations have positioned the Dominican Republic among the most demanding markets in the region regarding mandatory integration of utility-scale storage.
This was recently added to Resolution SIE-178-2025-MEM, formalized in January 2026, which further raised the technical standards for hybrid solar+BESS and wind+BESS projects.
The regulations require capabilities such as primary and secondary frequency regulation, ramp control, voltage control, black start, synthetic inertia, and fast system response.
Furthermore, the new renewable energy tenders already incorporate mandatory storage, auxiliary services and "ready to build" requirements, accelerating the transformation of the Dominican electricity market.
For Antai, this new scenario also modifies the criteria by which technologies are currently evaluated within a photovoltaic plant. While CAPEX and OPEX remain key variables, the ability to integrate with BESS systems and operational optimization are beginning to gain prominence.
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“Solutions are no longer evaluated solely based on CAPEX and OPEX,” Rivarola explained. “Today, we also analyze how they can be integrated with batteries, improve the production curve, reduce the LCOE, and ensure the project's bankability.”
The advancement of hybrid projects is also beginning to transform the role of EPC contractors and technologists. Plant engineering is gaining greater importance due to the need to coordinate generation, storage, control, and energy dispatch under a single operational strategy.
“EPC contractors today have an even greater responsibility in the design and performance of plants,” he noted.
In this context, tracking systems are beginning to evolve from tools focused solely on maximizing peak generation towards intelligent control platforms capable of adapting to the operational logic of hybrid projects.
According to the executive, the market already demands solutions capable of interacting in real time with SCADA, weather sensors and energy control systems.
“Today, a solar project is not the same as a solar project with BESS,” he stated. “Historically, tracking systems aimed to optimize peak power. Now we are going a step further: to produce better.”
In response to this trend, Antai developed a new controller called SmartTrail, focused on optimizing generation curves through artificial intelligence and predictive analytics.
“It incorporates big data systems, machine learning and real-time meteorological data that allow forecasting and optimization of the generation curve,” he explained.
Operational integration also emerges as another key factor in this new market phase. The tracker ceases to function as an isolated component and becomes a piece connected to the entire plant ecosystem.
“The tracker needs to be integrated with the SCADA system and the plant's sensors,” Rivarola stated. “We work with open protocols that greatly simplify the integration of the tracking system with all the other plant systems.”
However, despite regulatory and technological progress, the executive considered that a central challenge still persists to accelerate the deployment of storage in the region: the definition of clear remuneration mechanisms.
As he explained, BESS systems no longer just provide energy, but also operational reliability, frequency regulation and grid stability, variables that are increasingly relevant to the profitability and bankability of projects.
“ What we see is a need for clear regulations and standards ,” he said. “ If it’s not clear how a solar system with BESS will be remunerated, investors won’t be able to properly incorporate it into their financial models .”
“ That’s what will ultimately determine whether projects get developed or not, and how quickly they move forward ,” he concluded.