Santo Domingo.- The U.S. based company which recently announced a 3-stage project to install a natural gas-fired plant of 300 megawatts at a cost of US$600.0 million on Thursday stated its concern that the State-owned power utility CDEEE seeks to strip them of lands originally assigned for their investment and despite the provisional license issued by the National Energy Commission (CNE).

In a statement to DT, the investors of the project in Manzanillo, northwestern Montecristi Province list the details of the ongoing transaction:

Statement by NEC

“According to missive DESP-CNE-00191-2012, the CNE and CDEEE inform North Energy Central, NEC, the intent to strip it of its provisional concession, six months after the expiration of the legal deadline to object it, made even worse when the CNE, according to communication CNE-01355-2011 dated September 12, 2011, informs the CDEEE of the legislation and attaches a copy of it, without any objection on the part of the CDEEE, for which the CNE issued its license, based on the reservation of 250,000 square meters which would be leased with option to purchase, from a total of 2.0 million square meters of unimproved land which the  CDEEE has in Manzanillo (where 8 similar projects fit).”

“Reserved by means of communication number DJ-919/11 dated August 23 from the Legal Advisor of the CDEEE, in immediate response to the NEC request for these lands to the CDEEE, in communication dated August 19, 2011, reads “For the purpose of the request for the provisional concession."

“All this was ratified by the CDEEE via communication number 3155 of October 5, 2011, which acknowledges the allocation of lands as stated in paragraph 2 and the issuing of the provisional concession by the CNE (see paragraph 8). And in the last paragraph encourages us to forge ahead, for which the NEC doesn’t explain the change of attitude and which served as the basis to pre-contract gas turbines, delivery, studies, a tanker ship worth tens of millions of dollars, which NEC is obviously not going to lose.”

“North Central Energy NEC, would be generating 150 megawatts in 14 months, which would sell the Kw/h at around half the average price currently contracted by PPA in 3 years in the short term, renewable voluntarily by the parts, without any guarantee on the part of the Dominican Government and for energy served, without the need for a call for tenders, which commits the national credit and 300 megawatts would be generated in 30 months."