“I say that Catalina Point He was born with original sin,” says celso marranzini when you start talking to Free Daily on coal-fired power plant that it manages, whose construction during the Peledeista government and current operation have not been unchallenged.
Although a recent annual report from the Coordinating Body of the National Electric System Interconnected (SENI) indicates that “the more events (in SENI) in 2022 corresponded to: Central Punta Catalina with 23 events, of which 12 events corresponded to Catalina Point 1 and 11 events to Catalina Point 2”, Marranzini assures that “a greater number of failures occurred in other generating units”.
“What shows that they are normal situations that appear in every generation machine”, he says. AES Andrés had 15 events and seven Estrella del Mar 3.
The Thermoelectric Power Station Catalina Point It was officially inaugurated in 2020 in the Peravia province. It is the one that performs greater contributions of energy to the SENI. Marranzini assures that the country’s vehicle fleet is more polluting than said plant.
By 2022, supplied 23.35% of the system demand. Specifically, last year the plant contributed 4,701 net GWh, with 2,044 contributed by Unit 1 and 2,657 by Unit 2.
Regarding the total generated for 2021 (4,363 GWh), in 2022 increased by 8%.
Despite the contribution to the system, the two units of the plant still have not been officially delivered to the government, a process that is expected to conclude by mid-year.
“We have points that we are claiming (from the Odebrecht-Tecnimont-Estrella Consortium that built it), that until that is resolved, officially we do not receive the plant”, specifies Marranzini.
“The plant is working -he adds-, is leaving money, because last year the Ministry of Finance was given 200 million dollars. So, yes, but they are details that have to be settled”.
One of those failures was a displacement problem of the axial axis of Unit 1, which caused it to fire constantly. This was what motivated the shutdown of said unit that began at the end of March last year, which lasted until the beginning of June, despite having been announced for 45 days.
“Large power plant line outages are common, however, Catalina Point maintains a factor of 100 percent availability after the 97 percent registered in June 2022”, says Marranzini.
“Every day that we stop producing means 1 million dollars less in sales (daily) in each unit”Administrator of the Punta Catalina Thermoelectric Power Plant
Guarantee 2023
The executive ensures that the coal supply for the operation of the plant is guaranteed in this 2023. “We normally have a warehouse full (of coal),” she says.
He store has capacity for about 200,000 tonswhich -if a difficulty occurs and no more coal arrives- are enough for 34 days of operation. The ideal, acknowledges Marranzini, is to store for at least 60 days.
It also guarantees that in this 2023 forced departures are not foreseen of the plant, beyond the scheduled maintenance of the units, each for 40 days. The first will be for Unit 2 between April and May, and then for Unit 1 in November.
“Every day that we stop producing means 1 million dollars less sales (daily) in each unit”, he calculates.
Lower the cost of production
In the 2022 annual report of the Commercial Department of Catalina Point It is indicated that, after as of September 2021 production costs skyrocketed by approximately 174%, the company has recovered and improved gross margin. This allowed good profitability levels to be maintained during 2022.
The consumption cost of coal plus transportation represented the 93.29% of the plant’s production costs last year.
“We are the most efficient plant at this time, above the gas stations. The one that follows us and sometimes happens to us – and it is difficult for it to happen to us in the next two or three months – is Estrella de Mar number 3. That is the most efficient plant that this country has at the moment, apart from us”.
The report specifies that the production average for 2022 of the Barahona Coal unit reached 14.6 cents per kWh, those of Itabo (also coal) 11.1 and those of Catalina Point about 8.6.
“We are already buying coal at about $100 a ton, when it came to buying 400”, says Marranzini. He remembers that its price skyrocketed because of the war between Russia and Ukraine.
According to the commercial report, the income invoiced by the company in 2022 reached 800.6 million dollars. Compared to 2021, increased by 86%.
At a contractual level, the billing divided between the distribution companies Edenorte, Edesur and Edeeste reached 798.2 million dollars. The remaining 2.4 million dollars were invoiced in the spot market.
Marranzini reserves the right to advance any discovery of the technical-forensic audit made to the plant, until an executive summary is rendered to President Luis Abinader and Vice President Raquel Peña, who chairs the Electrical Cabinet.
In December 2022, Law 365-22 was enacted, which provides for the creation of the Punta Catalina Electricity Generating Company. Work is being carried out within the 180-day term granted by law for the Ministry of Energy and Mines to present to the Executive Branch a proposal to adapt the decrees and regulations related to said law.
Likewise, the Executive Power, within a period of 120 days, counted from its validity, will determine by decree, the composition of the management, administration and control bodies, faculties, as well as the positions of maximum hierarchy, integration and designation.
The 71-year-old executive confesses to Diario Libre that he is willing to run said Generating Company if Abinader so decides. “I am ready, I do not know until when. Likewise, I never thought that he was going to direct Punta Catalina,” he says.
