Cienfuegos-The intention to recover about 490 megawatts (MW) of power in the thermoelectric power plants (CTE) and in the distributed generation units before the end of the year, focus the efforts to revitalize the 11 fuel oil and diesel plants that exist in Cienfuegos, in addition to the works in the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes power plant.
It also depends on these actions that Cuba moves towards a more favorable scenario in the performance of the National Power Grid (SEN in Spanish), although such recovery will be gradual and limited for now.
REINCORPORATE UNITS
The purpose of the Geysel Cienfuegos base business unit (UEB), for the month of December is to work with at least 50% of the installed power, said Aliesqui Jiménez Ravelo, director of the entity, when commenting on the technical status of the eight batteries of generating sets of the territory.
He said that, at present, only three are available, located at the Oil Refinery, in the Junco Sur neighborhood, in the capital city, and in the municipality of Cruces. The rest are out of service, except for the two groups that make up the Antonio Sánchez enclave, in Aguada de Pasajeros, which were sent to Pinar del Río after Hurricane Ian hit that territory.
The goal for the end of the year is focused on the 40 engines of the Refinery, of which 14 units will be reincorporated to reach 50 MW of power with a design capacity of 84 MW.
The alternative to recover generation capacity in that plant, the most modern one in Cienfuegos, with only four years of operation, goes through complex processes that involve sending the engines abroad for maintenance.
"Due to the technological requirements, this equipment is dismantled when it reaches 12,000 hours. The engine is sent abroad, to Germany, for its capital repair, while here we undertake other tasks that allow to synchronize it to the SEN in the shortest possible time as soon as it arrives, “explained Jiménez Ravelo.
The 14 motors are expected to arrive shortly, and the purpose is to install eight in the first phase, and six in the second. Geysel Cienfuegos would thus contribute almost half of its installed power, which is around 109 MW.
GENERATOR SETS IN CRUCES
The fuel oil generator set base at Cruces, of the UEB Generación de Energía Eléctrica con Grupos Fuel Oil (Emgef), ranks as one of the best in Cuba. Of its 12 engines, it has 11 in operation.
"We recently concluded a capital repair that allowed us to increase availability," said Evelio Navarro Aladro, head of this power plant. There, of the 20.4 MW of installed power, 18.7 MW are available. The progressive entry of spare parts facilitates the implementation of maintenance in sequence, in order to be more efficient.
"We are talking about deep interventions, aimed at recovering a series of parameters in the engine, and assessing the parts that need to be replaced by the manufacturer. “This demands a lot of dedication and initiative from our workers, who have responded to the challenge," said Navarro Aladro.
CONTRIBUTION AT YAGUARAMAS
In Yaguaramas, in the municipality of Abreus, there is a different situation. Four groups contribute to the SEN constantly, and five do so only during peak hours.
Yuinel Durán Hernández, head of Operations, stated that the main task is to recover the engines with new parts, and other parts that are still in good condition. Although breakdowns have occurred after these works, they usually manage to synchronize them in a period of 72 hours.
The work is very hard, a lot of sacrifice has to be made and analysis to evaluate what to do with the little we have, due to the lack of resources, commented Yulieski Gómez Córdova, the only woman who works as an operator at the Yaguaramas plant, together with a brigade of more than 20 mechanic men.
This is the mainstay of EMGEF Cienfuegos, in order to put 38 of its 40 generators into service by the end of 2022. At the moment of writing this article, there were seven units out of service and it had already generated 50.9 MW of the 51.2 MW committed to the country by that date, a number that is still below its maximum power, estimated at 68 MW.
"Only two will not be able to recover due to a shortage of parts," said Yunier Amador Rodríguez, director of this UEB, which maintains a technical availability of more than 75%.
"With the support of the military industry, of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, we persist in the purpose of incorporating more groups to the SEN, to contribute to stabilize the electric generation and avoid the prolonged service outages that affect the people so much," he said.
Translated by ESTI
