Rolando González Bunster: “CEPM guarantees stability and the necessary security for a sustainable energy transition.”

Santo Domingo, June 30, 2023. On the road to zero emissions, the key to ensuring system stability, and continuous, high-quality energy service lies in the combination of different energy sources and a robust storage infrastructure. This was emphasized by Rolando González Bunster, our President and CEO, during his participation in the Energy Summit organized by Revista Mercado.

From the main topic of his presentation, “Leading the Change to Zero Emissions,” González Bunster stated, “Our plan is to replace oil with gas and steadily move towards renewables. The key is the perfect combination to guarantee the energy transition that the world aims for.”

Over the course of more than thirty years in the Dominican Republic, InterEnergy has been oriented towards generating an increasingly cleaner future, and that increasingly near goal has a name: CEPM Zero.

It was during the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) held in Glasgow in 2021 when the President of InterEnergy Group announced the plan to make CEPM a 100% renewable energy company before 2030, under the CEPM Zero initiative. “When I made this announcement, I didn’t realize the complexity and magnitude of this project,” confessed González Bunster. “But this commitment is already a reality, and we will install 700 MW of renewable energy in the CEPM concession area and another 100 MW outside of this area.”

The challenge on this path, as indicated by González Bunster, is to overcome the intermittency of renewable energies when the natural resource, whether it be wind, water, or sun, is not available. This requires creating a storage infrastructure that is ” adequately reliable and robust” to ensure system stability. “And that requires investment. Anyone who thinks renewable energy is cheap needs to consider that it requires many add-ons to be reliable,” reminded the President of InterEnergy Group.

“Renewable energy represents a significant percentage of the country’s installed kW generation, but not in terms of kW produced. Therefore, we must consider how to supplement renewable energy with enough batteries so that this energy can operate for the most hours per day,” he added.

On this matter, CEPM, as an isolated system, can guarantee this balance by determining the necessary combination and investment to achieve this goal. “We want to make the eastern tourist zone a zero-emission destination, from Casa de Campo to Miches, where tourists can travel in electric cars, charge them with solar energy, and transfer to Isla Saona in the country’s first electric catamaran. That is our path,” explained González Bunster.

From this perspective, Saona has had a photovoltaic plant since last December that provides clean energy to its more than 600 inhabitants for the first time in its history, based on a replicable sustainability model in other parts of the world. This plan is part of the Sustainable Saona project, carried out in partnership with the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MIMARENA), to turn this destination, which receives over 1 million tourists annually, into a first-rate model.

Regarding this matter, as stated by González Bunster, InterEnergy Group’s plans in the short term are ambitious towards the zero-emission future that we aspire to achieve, with a regional scope. We are preparing the expansion of renewable assets in different parts of Latin America in the near future. In 2024, we will inaugurate the largest combined cycle power plant in Central America and the Caribbean in Panama, in partnership with AES. We are also continuing the unstoppable expansion of Evergo, with the largest and most sophisticated charging station network in the region, already present in more than a dozen countries.