The Minister of Energy and Mines of Cuba, Liván Arronte, met last Monday with the directors of the Slovak company Ses Tlmace, with the aim of negotiating a boiler repair contract at the Felton and Mariel thermoelectric plants. in your account Twitterthe ministry described the meeting as an “important” contact with “the highest level of management” of that company.
It is not the first time that Ses Tlmace has come to the rescue of the Cuban Government during an energy crisis. In 2016, Ricardo Cabrisas, then Vice President of the Council of Ministers, facilitated the signing of a 90 million euro contract between this company and the Cuban contractor Energoimport, to promote the Mariel Special Development Zone (ZEDM) between 2016 and 2019.
The Slovak company completely modernized the Mariel thermoelectric plant, in a project that was defined by the directors of Ses Tlmace as “the largest investment plan in the construction of energy sources in Cuba during the last 20 years.”
At that time, the general director of Ses Tlmace, Martin Pastika, assured that he saw “many more possibilities” of working in Cuba, since “other units in the country will also require investments.” Indeed, since 2000 the company had invested more than 100 million euros in the island’s energy system, “which means maintaining a good position in the country and continuing our work on the Moa project,” added Pastika.
Ses Tlmace is responsible for 40% of the modernization and installation of power plants in Cuba, according to company statistics
In addition to Mariel and Moa, Ses Tlmace planned the modernization of the Santa Cruz del Norte thermoelectric plant. “Since the search for traditional energy sources is no longer possible in the European market, winning the Mariel project for us is definitely good news,” the manager stated in 2016, since the contract could be made with the Government itself, without intermediaries. , which offered the company a “unique position”.
Ses Tlmace is responsible for 40% of the modernization and installation of power plants in Cuba, according to company statistics. In 2000, they renovated the Nuevitas thermoelectric plant, at a cost of 19.6 million dollars, and in 2006, the Santa Cruz plant (30 million euros).
They also carried out oil projects in Cienfuegos, together with Venezuela and the Cuban company Cupet, and nickel extraction projects in Moa. This latest plan, Ses Tlmace’s first outside the energy sector, exceeded 25 million euros.
Ses Tlmace, founded in 1950 in the former Czechoslovakia, is a multinational dedicated to the design, manufacture and assembly of energy equipment. Dependent on the investment group J&T and the Czech billionaire Daniel Kretínsky, Ses Tlmace has offices in Hungary, the Czech Republic and also in Chile.
As reported by his website, the company has more than 40 years of experience working in Cuba, since Soviet times. In 1997, the company set up an agency in Havana.
While Ses Tlmace meets with the Ministry of Energy and Mines, a reportage in the newspaper workers points out the precarious situation in which the Cuban energy sector finds itself, which has just suffered a fire in the Felton thermoelectric plant, the largest in the country.
“The lack of pieces and parts is due to the obstacles imposed by the US blockade on Cuba and the difficult economic situation we are going through”
In contradiction to what the multimillion-dollar Ses Tlmace projects reflect, the text describes “the old and overexploited technology” of a thermoelectric plant in Las Tunas.
“The lack of pieces and parts is due to the obstacles imposed by the US blockade on Cuba and the difficult economic situation we are going through,” justifies the director of the plant, who is obviously unaware of Ses Tlmace’s investment plans. “These resources must be managed abroad through third parties and when they appear they cost us dearly, which further complicates the situation,” he adds.
With “overalls and hands full of grease,” the report hits the nail on the head when it defines the operators of the national energy system as “old iron surgeons.”
However, neither Ses Tlmace’s investments nor the efforts of local engineers seem to alleviate the energy crisis. The daily report of the Electric Union continues to predict partial and total damages to the electric power. Despite these limits, the Cuban people have become accustomed to the fact that “blackout schedules” are rarely respected.
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