Cuba negotiates so that the Turkish company Karpowership doubles the energy it produces in the floating plants it has installed on the island, according to the British agency Reuterswhich cites two people involved in the talks as a source.
The main stumbling block, according to this information, is payment. “The embargo makes Western financial transactions very difficult, and Cuba is short on cash and behind on payments with many vendors and joint venture partners,” one of the sources said.
The amount that Cuba pays for the lease at the port is unknown, as neither party has revealed it. The only public reference to the amount for similar contracts is the one made in 2011 between Pakistan and Karkey (belonging, like Karpowership, to Karadeniz Holding) to take a ship to the port of Karachi that was to provide 231 MW. The country made an advance payment of nine million dollars only as charges for electrical power and ended up in court for non-compliance with the agreed amount of generation.
Currently, Karpowership has five ships in Cuba that generate around 250 megawatts, but the amount is negligible compared to the needs of the National Electroenergetic System, which this Monday had marked a new milestone with a deficit of 890 MW at its peak hour.
The record has been broken this Wednesday when it was learned that the energy deficit will exceed 50% of the maximum generation capacity. This is the first time during the current Cuban energy crisis that this rate has been reached, which was announced one day after the shutdown due to technical problems at the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant.
The state company estimated for this Wednesday a generation capacity at peak hours of 2,064 megawatts (MW) and a maximum demand of 3,100 MW at that time. This implies a deficit of 1,036 MW and, according to estimates by the Electric Union of Cuba (UNE), a maximum impact of 1,106 MW.
The sources consulted by Reuters affirm that the Turkish company needs to increase its fleet off the Island to produce the amount of energy required
The sources consulted by Reuters affirm that the Turkish company needs to increase its fleet off the Island to produce the amount of energy required. The ships have their own generator that is fueled by oil or gas and is connected to the local electricity grid after anchoring close to land.
If the negotiations prosper, the relief would be immediate for the system, since another 250 MW would be provided, enough to replace the output of Felton 1, which is being repaired due to a new fault.
Energy and Mines Minister Liván Arronte Cruz said last week that the country hoped to nearly eliminate blackouts by the end of the year, in part by adding “531 megawatts to generation capacity through new investments,” a figure reduced to 450 MW by President Miguel Díaz-Canel over the weekend, who also predicted the end of the blackouts for December.
Omar Ramírez Mendoza, deputy director of the UNE, recently said on television that “240 MW –of those 450 MW– will come from mobile generation”, as officials call floating plants (powership), an amount that coincides with that provided by Reuters sources.
Neither the UNE nor Karadeniz have responded to the British agency’s request for more information.
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