Block one of the Central thermoelectric (CTE) Lidio Ramón Pérez, from Felton, Holguín province, synchronized with the National Electric System (SEN) since last Saturday, a situation that reduced the electricity generation deficit, seriously affected during the recent week.
The generating unit provides 185 megawatts (MW) on a stable basis, and would reach its maximum capacity of 260 MW “when the scheduled maintenance that it requires is executed,” explained the general director of the plant, engineer Osmel Maturell Reyes, quoted in note from the official newspaper Granma.
According to the paper, the partial repair of block two, started in March this year, was continuing in order to increase the reliability of the boiler, turbine and generator. This Sunday unit three of the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes thermoelectric plant in Cienfuegos also synchronized with the SEN to provide 158 MW of generation.
Unit No. 3 of the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes thermoelectric plant, in Cienfuegos, resumed its generation today, after a brief stoppage in order to solve the affectation in the continuous cleaning system of the condenser. pic.twitter.com/mgbdtFKJKa
— Electric Union (@OSDE_UNE) May 23, 2022
The aforementioned block remained stopped for a short period of time (from very early hours of Saturday), with the aim of fixing damages caused in the continuous cleaning system of the condenser, details Granma.
Also since Saturday afternoon, block six of the October 10 Thermoelectric Power Plant, in Nuevitas, Camagüey, added energy to the system, after having stopped at dawn that day for technical reasons, the media reports. Currently, block four, one of the three generating units of that plant, remains out of service.
In the last 11 months, the Electric Union has notified more than 300 affectations, due to breakdowns or maintenance tasks, in a large part of the 13 thermoelectric plants in the country (eight on land and five floating).
Cuba: an “operational error” causes prolonged blackouts in the eastern region
The obsolescence of almost all thermoelectric plants and the few options to solve their maintenance problems emerge among the fundamental causes of the continuing crisis that the Island is experiencing in relation to electricity generation, causing prolonged cuts or blackouts, even at dawn.
In mid-March, the western Antonio Guiteras plant, the largest in the country, was out of service due to a boiler failure, an event that occurred a week after a planned maintenance stoppage. In April, it was out of service for five days due to another breakdown that affected the electricity service in a large part of the western population of Cuba.
The electricity generation It has been one of the biggest problems faced by the Cuban government in the midst of the economic crisis, aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the embargo imposed by the various US administrations and the limited effect of the measures taken to update the economic model.
To mitigate the impact of the deficit and the blackouts, one of the triggers of social unrest translated into the protests of last July, the Cuban authorities have implemented, with greater or lesser success, some alternatives, including the incorporation of several floating plants from Turkey to the SEN.
