Radio Cadena Agramonte emisiora de Camagüey
Havana, September 18. - Unit 1 of the Lidio Ramón Pérez thermoelectric power plant, in Felton, Holguín, is close to being synchronized with the National Electric System (SEN) this weekend, Vicente de la O Levy, Minister of Energy and Mines, informed the press yesterday.
He explained that this unit, one of the largest in the system, had experienced a critical situation that required shutting it down and proceeding with its repair.
It was planned for 20 days, but planning is done, and then, once it starts, it's corrected, and time is taken into account. When the equipment is new, it's easier to plan, but if it's equipment that's been in operation for 40 years, when you open it, you discover things. However, in this case, the opposite happened, in a positive way.
We planned for 20 days, and everything indicates that it could be connected to the system by next weekend.
INCREASING DEFICIT, THE MOST CRITICAL SITUATION
The Minister of Energy and Mines explained that, when Felton 1 comes online, the most critical situation should improve; this means returning to the levels of impacts we had before its shutdown. It is improving, but there is still a high deficit, he noted.
Before Felton’s shutdown, the system was very weak, he commented, and this worsened the deficit, combined with a failure in a seawater pipeline at the Mariel sites, with a capacity of 100 megawatts. That problem has now been resolved, he assured.
He added that, in coordination with the military industry, that pipeline system was fully repaired, and at this moment, before this conference, it was generating 98 MW and should reach 112 MW, which is undoubtedly a relief.
There was also the shutdown of units in Renté and Nuevitas, he added. This caused this week to be extremely tense, with a deficit of more than 2,000 MW on Tuesday, he exemplified.
WHAT HAPPENED IN HAVANA ON MONDAY?
Regarding what happened Monday afternoon in the capital, De la O Levy explained that, given the operating conditions, the system fluctuated due to the shutdown of a unit in Nuevitas. To prevent a complete shutdown, the National Dispatch team acted urgently, opening the Havana circuits, the highest consumers, to stabilize that large fluctuation.
This outage in the capital lasted approximately one hour, opened at 5:00 p.m., and by 6:00 p.m., the circuits were restored, returning to the level of impact that existed before the event.
PROJECTIONS FOR THE COMING DAYS
The head of the Ministry of Energy and Mines emphasized that, once Felton 1 is incorporated, with the current generation and solar farms, the impacts in the morning could be reduced again to less than 1,000 megawatts.
Now is the time of year when these impacts during a single moment of the day are increasingly rapid and shorter in duration, he commented. In the summer, an impact of 1,700 MW lasts for hours; in the winter, an impact of 1,700 MW lasts for minutes. Demand rises very quickly, and it also falls very quickly, he explained.
Regarding fuel, he said there has been no critical situation this week, although there have been some shortages in certain regions, and lubricants have been running low but are also recovering. This does not mean that fuel is stable, he clarified, because there is an extremely tense situation with financing.
SOLAR FARMS AND FREQUENCY REGULATING BATTERIES
To date, we have installed 656 MW of the 1,000 MW we plan to install this year. One or two sites of this type are being synchronized and inaugurated almost every week in the country, he expressed. Only two parks remain to begin construction; all the others are progressing according to schedule, he added.
Regarding energy storage, De la O Levy explained that, in addition to each 1,000 MW contract for solar farms, 100 MW of storage was contracted to regulate frequency.
These two are different technologies: the production of photovoltaic solar panels is already carried out in series, like producing screws, he exemplified; however, batteries are produced with engineering and detail, like a custom-made suit tailored to where they will be installed.
These batteries are already finished and paid for, and all engineering and factory inspections are being completed for their shipping process. There are already resources from this project in the country, he added.
He clarified that, as has been explained on other occasions, even if the solar park project had not been implemented, the Cuban electrical system already needed batteries that regulated the frequency to stabilize it, given that our old thermoelectric plants have necessarily lost the ability to regulate frequency. He added that having a thermoelectric plant regulate frequency increases the strain on that machine, which is also generating electricity.
Once these batteries are installed, the system's situation will substantially change, referring to high-frequency tripping, as these will decrease considerably, not only for the customer, but also for the stability of the SEN.
COMPLETE MAINTENANCE
We plan to continue fulfilling the maintenance work being carried out at Céspedes and East Havana, he assured.
In the case of Renté 5, which has shown unstable behavior, he explained that the unit is already in the process of assimilating the intervention, as it has just completed maintenance after a full year.
Why a process of assimilation? When a major repair is done, more than a thousand points of the thermoelectric plant are intervened, which then always require fine-tuning, something that is detected once the machine is operating and corrections are made.
Mariel 6 also underwent repairs and was out of service for a month and a bit, showing the same irregularities as Renté 5, until the fine-tuning was completed and the unit became completely stable, he explained.
Therefore, the adjustment at Renté will be completed, and Céspedes 4, a very reliable unit for the system's operation, will be synchronized, as will the East Habana machine, which has also been undergoing maintenance for a year. All of this will occur during the remainder of September and October, he stated.
Regarding the shifting of machine maintenance, the Minister critically acknowledged that the synchronization of the units that had been planned for the summer could not be met.
They were shifted because they are units that underwent a diagnosis, a planning process, even between foreign experts and our best experts here; but, when you open a unit that has been in operation for 40 or 50 years, you encounter other things and other situations, he explained.
Therefore, it was decided to extend the maintenance, as it would be very painful to close a unit and complete the maintenance knowing that you left something broken, only to then have to shut the unit down again because of that, he added.
That's what happened to us in Céspedes, where there were also quality errors that were rectified along the way. We have to be honest, because that can happen, but our electrical workers are engaged in a fight with commitment and a sense of belonging.
He said that, in the summer, the fundamental reason why the commitment to reduce the impacts could not be met was the lack of fuel.
Added to this was the withdrawal of the trucks in August, which increased the deficit. This withdrawal was said to be for commercial reasons; all the Cuban people know, because they are intelligent, that the reason is the inability to pay, he asserted.
De la O Levy referred to the report on the blockade presented by the Foreign Minister yesterday, in which he stated that five hours of blockade are equivalent to the financing needed for the major repairs of the Antonio Guiterras thermoelectric plant: 100 million dollars.
We may have inefficiency, but more than 95% of the real cause is a lack of funding, because it's been proven that the electrical system workers don't rest, and there's a real lack of resources. If we don't have the $100 million, we can't provide Guiteras with capital maintenance. (Text and photo: Granma Digital)
