After many obstacles that have prevented the stable operation of both industries, technicians and specialists assure that the best synchronization has been achieved between the Ciro Redondo power plant and the nearby bioelectric plant, the first experience in Cuba to generate electric energy from sugarcane and sicklebush biomass.
After the interconnection - with the two boilers in operation - the technical parameters showed stability, in a progressive process that would allow increasing the loads and contributing to the National Electric System (SEN in Spanish), besides guaranteeing the electricity and steam supplies of the power plant and the bioelectric plant itself.
Ariel Díaz Román, director of the electricity generating plant, explained to Granma newspaper that they are keeping a strict watch on the operation and parameters of the plant and the mill, a combination that must operate close to perfection in its processes, in order to avoid stoppages and damages.
Vidal Martín Sarduy, administrator of Ciro Redondo, the most modern sugar mill in Cuba at present, affirmed that the plant is raising the milling to reach the top of its operational standard in the 106 days of the harvest: 5,600 tons in 24 hours, a figure that, he ratified, can be met without problems.
"The plant is strong, it feels calm, comfortable, adjusted, with new equipment. That is a strength, although we know that we are obliged to achieve stable grindings so as not to affect the bioelectric plant, which is like affecting ourselves. For now we are focused on reducing the humidity of the bagasse, so that the neighbor can consume it without problems and thus save the sicklebush biomass," argued Martín Sarduy, a connoisseur of the sugar agroindustry in the province.
It is expected that the bioelectric plant will produce at full capacity some 2,100 tons of bagasse in 24 hours, during harvest time, and 1,200 to 1,500 tons of sicklebush, during the sugar mill's idle period, although so far it has not been able to process only bagasse, as foreseen in the original design of its boilers.
The plant will deliver steam and electric power and, in turn, the power plant will send bagasse and condensate; hence, if any of these processes fail, the stumbling blocks will return.
Translated by ESTI
