Radio Cadena Agramonte emisiora de Camagüey
Camagüey, March 6. - Unit six of the "10 de Octubre" Thermoelectric Power Plant (CTE) in the municipality of Nuevitas, in the industrial city of the province of Camagüey, synchronized with the National Electric System (SEN, by its acronym in Spanish) just after 7:00 pm this Thursday. It maintains stable operation and is expected to reach 60 megawatts of generation as an important contribution to the SEN, which was fully reconnected during today's session after a collapse from this territory to Pinar del Río.
Close to 9:00 p.m., the machine remained favorably online, increasing load, after the starting process, which was slow on this occasion, as steam was not available since both blocks of the plant were shut down.
Executed by workers of the operations shift, the start-up of "unit six" was carried out successfully, based on a decision by the National Electric Union (UNE, by its acronym in Spanish) to incorporate it into the SEN amid the high deficit the country is facing and the tense situation arising from the lack of fuel to start up distributed generation equipment.
Engineer Jorge Luis MaceiraEsteva, general director of the CTE "10 de Octubre," commented by phone to the Cuban News Agency that in previous days they carried out the washing of the Regenerative Air Heaters, replaced a damaged canvas gasket, and cleaned the burners.
Pending, once indicated by the UNE, are tasks to fix a leak on the floor of the boiler furnace and its dome, which were postponed due to the current energy contingency, aggravated after the SEN shutdown of the Antonio Guiteras CTE.
Meanwhile, block number five of the Camagüey thermoelectric plant has been undergoing an extended partial maintenance since January, scheduled for six months.
The Electric Company of Camagüey applied the established protocols for this type of emergency; as soon as there was a possibility to restore service on Wednesday, the circuits serving hospitals and water pumping received it first.
Gradually and equitably, electricity was then supplied to the remaining circuits of the province, as system availability allowed, through the well-known rotations that continue during tonight.
The highest political and governmental authorities of the province, along with engineers, technicians, and managers of the Electric Company of Camagüey, remained vigilant and monitoring the SEN situation. (Text and photo: Jorge Luis Moreira Massagué/ACN)
