Havana/The Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant, a controversial star of the national electrical system (SEN), was due to go out of service this Friday to address “defects that cannot be postponed.” After a barrage of criticism and a panorama of growing discontent among the population, the maintenance was postponed for “at least 48 hours.” However, this Saturday they announced that he finally left the SEN at 2:30 in the morning to undertake “light maintenance”, which should last for a period of around four days.
The terms used to justify the constant breakages could fill a book. The supposed light maintenance includes more than 500 corrective actions that include cleaning the condenser and washing the regenerative air heaters (CAR), as well as the repair and replacement of about 40 valves and intervention in the automatic and electrical systems.
The list of failures accumulates other failed units: Felton, Antonio Maceo; others under maintenance in Cienfuegos and Santa Cruz; 70 distributed generation plants paralyzed due to fuel shortage and 120 MW out due to lack of lubricant. In total, 723 MW lost due to shortages such as oil and diesel, despite all the help that the Island receives, at privileged prices and terms, from Mexico and Venezuela.
The public increasingly questions that the “hopeful” renewable energies have not alleviated the energy crisis that the country is suffering. “Solar panels… good and you,” summarized one user, condensing in five words the official contradiction between promises and dark neighborhoods.
La Guiteras will re-enter the operating room, they say, to return with “more reliability” in 96 hours
In the midst of this chronic collapse, Guiteras –with a staggering 120 MW, from an original capacity of 330– had to undergo deep maintenance, with repairs to the superheater, water pipes, boiler, valves and an automatic overhaul, a complete technical spa for a plant that carries decades of overuse and repairs on its back. But according to the deputy technical director, engineer Román Pérez Castañeda, although there is “significant loss of water in the boiler”, it can still “be kept in operation” while the so-called “critical path” is adjusted.
The comments to the first publication in Cubadebate They reacted with the now usual mix of sarcasm and exhaustion. One user reported 33 hours without electricity in Granma circuits, others denounced the habit of highlighting “heroic” maintenance that are nothing more than patches with applause. And there was no shortage of people who summarized the national paradox: “Every time the deficit goes down, they take out a unit to fix it and it goes up again. There is always an impact, due to H or B.”
This is how the SEN wheel turns, with “undelayable defects” that are postponed, but not so long; availabilities that “are, but are not”; forecasts that are never right; and a population that no longer knows if it lives under a contingency plan or in the middle of a tunnel without any light at the end of the journey. La Guiteras will re-enter the operating room, they say, to return with “more reliability” in 96 hours. Cubans are already too familiar with that soap opera, a long soap opera where we already know what will happen in each chapter, and where the story never ends.
