Chief Operations Officer of Dominica Electricity Services Limited (DOMLEC), Ian Ramrattan says he believes that Dominica is on track to solely depend on renewable energy by 2030.

Ramrattan was addressing members of the media during a tour of the PADU Power Station at Trafalgar last week.

“ We believe that at least for geothermal, it’s quite realistic. The other opportunities of solar PV, the Independent Regulatory Commission (IRC) recently wrote DOMLEC indicating that DOMLEC has been awarded 4.5 megawatts of PV solar plant, so we are looking at an internal level right now,” he said. “ We are trying to get that going, but there are a couple [of] things we have to analyze before we confirm that it’s a project we will engage in 100%.”

Ramrattan explained that the system load is about 16 megawatt.

“If you talk about 10 megawatts in about 2 years’ time, possibly 4.5 megawatts solar, we have close to 5 -6 megawatts of hydro…but for the most part, I think we are quite on track to establish clean energy by 2030,” he explained.

Meanwhile, Generation Manager of DOMLEC, Dave Stamp said the government’s plans to bring in 10 megawatts of geothermal energy could greatly assist the process.

“ Our peak before Maria was about 18, if we bring in 10 megawatts that will bring us closer to the full renewable energy generation,” he stated. “So I think it is very doable, but it will take a lot of work planning, working together, DOMLEC , Government and other stakeholders, regulators and other agencies to have that done.”

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