The lack of transparency of the Cuban Government, this time in electricity generation (or its absence), once again sows doubts and confusion among experts and indignation among citizens. The perfect example is the confusing information offered by the Unión Eléctrica (UNE) in its daily report on the situation of the Máximo Gómez thermoelectric plant, in Mariel (Artemisa).
Unit 6 of the plant, which contributes 80 megawatts (MW) to the system, was out of service on September 11 due to “low fuel levels”, a situation incomprehensible to Professor Jorge Piñón, a specialist in the oil sector of the University of Texas (USA).
“The thermoelectric plant uses Cuban crude oil as fuel,” he reminds 14 intervene the expert, who points out that the eight generating sets located in Mariel, with a capacity of 147 MW, use fuel oil; as well as the Turkish floating power plants of Karadeniz.
To add more intrigue to the situation, in its report this Tuesday, the UNE placed the same unit 6 of the Máximo Gómez plant out of service again, but “due to a breakdown.”
This crude oil has been arriving abundantly from the port of Matanzas, argues Piñón, who has followed the most recent transfers between the two destinations. “The Caribbean Alliance is a coastal tanker that serves Mariel from Matanzas. Its regular volume is around 80,000-90,000 barrels and it can segregate Cuban crude oil and fuel oil in the same trip.”
The professor provides the plan and tracking of the tanker, which indicates five recent arrivals from that port of origin to Mariel, one on August 29 and the rest on September 2, 5, 9 and 11. “I don’t understand why Mariel is low on fuel,” says Piñón.
To add more intrigue to the situation, in its report this Tuesday, the UNE placed the same unit 6 of the Máximo Gómez plant out of service again, but “due to breakdown” on this occasion.
Meanwhile, the Island once again added another night without electricity across the board. The work at the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant, which after suffering two failures in a row is still outside the system, continues without the news seeming very encouraging. “As in any industry in which there is always something to do, even more so when it has been in operation for 34 years, the wait that can become desperate is for the immense boiler to reach 50 degrees Celsius to enter and find the cause of the loss of water,” Radio Rebelde journalist José Miguel Solís said this Tuesday.
“Only after inspection can the time or extension of the so-called ‘critical path’ be calculated. After the welds are certified, (and) analyzed metallographically, they must be subjected to tests with different water and air pressures. If passes, the complex start-up process begins in the boiler, by the way, according to what we are told, the only pressurized one in Cuban thermoelectric plants and, furthermore, the one that has not received capital maintenance for a long time,” he said.
This type of work, which was to include the boiler of the largest Cuban thermoelectric plant, was announced precisely for the end of 2022. In March, however, when the rehabilitation tasks of the plant were being completed, it was specified that the sanitation of pipes and resolved problems in automatic control systems and other technological limitations. “Not all the causes or all the problems will be solved,” warned the technicians, who postponed even a “capital maintenance” that could last six months, others of greater significance.
After blackouts of up to 18 hours on Monday due to a reported deficit of almost 1,000 MW (the largest since April), the UNE stated that a lack of 780 MW during peak hour was expected this Tuesday and some journalists from the ruling party They indicated that the situation would be better than the previous night. Whether it was or not, it rains and it pours and fatigue once again consumes the patience of Cubans.
“In my 25 years I have never had a morning as long as this one, not even when my children were babies”
“In my 25 years I have never had a morning as long as this one, not even when my children were babies,” says a resident in San Antonio de los Baños on her Facebook profile who confesses to being exhausted by the situation. “Now what is the impact of returning to the old system of planned blackouts? It is known that we are as obedient as children in daycare who didn’t even put in any planning. (…) Here what is screwed are the leaders, not the thermoelectric plants “she laments.
In Camagüey, meanwhile, another user recounted her day. “Today in the early morning, around 5 am, we were without power. I don’t know what time it came back exactly, but at 6:30 am we still didn’t have fluid (…). At 10:00 am [cortan la luz] once again (…) at 3:00 pm it returned and now they are taking it away from us again,” he wrote. “My life, I am from Cienfuegos and yesterday I was in a blackout from 2 to 6 pm and after 11:40 pm to 5:20 am,” another responded.
Under these circumstances, the Island is preparing to host the G-77 plus China summit on September 15 and 16, with the presence of more than 30 heads of state, including the presidents of Brazil and Argentina, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Alberto Fernández, and the Secretary General of the UN, António Guterres, as well as the head of the anti-corruption body of the Chinese Communist Party, Li Xi, on behalf of the Asian giant.
The Convention Palace, the Palco hotel, the Pabexpo fairgrounds, the El Palenque restaurant and the Cubanacán Hall (known as El Laguito) will host an event for which Havana is being decorated while its citizens, who are also suffering from cuts light, they doubt that the leaders will suffer this and other of their daily hardships.
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