BY JOAQUIN ORAMAS

THE annoying power cuts that have increased during the last few weeks in Cuba are to gradually diminish in July and the energy situation on the island should be normalized by August with the re-incorporation into the national system of generating blocs that were being maintained and other that have suffered faults.

Yadira García, minister of basic industry, affirmed on the TV Informative Roundtable program that it has been necessary to maneuver in very difficult conditions, almost an emergency situation, due to units in the Nuevitas thermoelectric plant in northern Camagüey and the Antonio Guiteras in Matanzas having to be taken out of service, in the midst of the planned maintenance of various generating blocs.

That situation provoked a major deficit of electricity by coinciding with maintenance work aimed at assuring greater efficiency in the electricity system throughout the summer, the months in which thousands of workers and students on vacation increase the domestic electricity demand.

The minister of basic industry also stated that the country has the financial resources necessary to undertake those tasks, while warning of obsolescence in the generating plants. She stressed that on more than a few occasions the parts to repair breakdowns have to be ordered. However, despite the unforeseen difficulties the maintenance program had been maintained, "because it is the guarantee of attaining the reliability of the system that we are seeking."

The minister was accompanied on the Informative Roundtable -- which goes out on TV and radio -- by deputy ministers, directors of thermoelectric plants and other officials in the sector, who offered clear information on the work being undertaken by thousands of workers, technical staff, engineers and other university professionals highly qualified to overcome the problems and fulfill the program of attention to the plants, the results of which were announced.

Yadira García clarified that the current electricity situation is completely different to that of July last year, given that then it was a case of working on a large plant with serious faults with the prospect of many days out of service and maintenance halted in all the other plants, whereas now a group of units are being serviced. Then there is the prospect of the significant investments underway in terms of alternatives. She mentioned the savings’ program that is dependent on public awareness and incorporation, as well as electrical equipment being renewed in relation to that objective.

In that context and with a clear view of the future, Yadira García ratified the ideas expressed by President Fidel Castro on the Cuban electricity situation in recent TV appearances. "These are not based on the plants that have a lot of limitations and whose reparations would be costly. They are based on new ideas, programs and strategies, with a distributed generation and more efficiency in terms of interacting and resolving the problems for which today, faced with a limitation, a deficit, we really do not have a solution," she emphasized, adding that we could momentarily be in a situation similar to other countries, but Cuba’s perspective is one of total recovery from a situation more serious than the one that we are currently facing. She also noted that production within strategic programs that cannot be detained has not been halted.

She pointed to the transparency with which the actual situation of the electricity system is being confronted and the support that the workers are receiving from President Fidel Castro, who is concerned and personally attending to those difficulties.

Many of the future designs and strategies that are giving us room for optimism in the midst of the complexity of the electricity system have been organized by him, the minister indicated.

The information given on the roundtable highlighted the upgrading of one of the 100-MW units of the thermoelectric plant in the east of Habana province, with an investment of close to $20 million. Among other works, the principal valve of the steam turbine, which was not guaranteeing the necessary hermeticism in the technological process, has been replaced. It is an element that functions in parameters of 540 degrees of temperature and up to 220 atmospheres of pressure, and is manufactured with special steel alloy materials. That is what assures halting the turbine without failings in the technological process.

Iván Arronte Cruz, director of the Electricity Plant Maintenance enterprise, stated that the entity is assuming one of its greatest challenges, as it is managing high-capacity attention to the generating blocs, in three sessions, thus guaranteeing its operation on a 24-hour basis. He also detailed the recuperation of a number of complex elements in the generating process, some of them discontinued, which the company has undertaken in its workshops.

As an example of efficiency in the attention to the plants, praise was given to the collective at the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes thermoelectric plant in Cienfuegos, whose director José Antonio Puerto Pérez explained that the enterprise comprises two 158-MW blocs of Japanese construction, with 27 years of exploitation, and another two 30-MW Czech units, with 38 years of operation. These are complemented by the Hanabanilla hydroelectric station, with a 43-MW capacity.

Its technical workers have managed to repair one 30-MW unit and the Japanese ones.

Information was also given on maintenance works on units in the Antonio Maceo plant in Santiago de Cuba and the Lidio Ramón Pérez in the north of Holguín, and on the faults in the Antonio Guiteras plant in Matanzas, and the Diez de Octubre in northern Camagüey.

The minister of basic industry described the Guiteras as a high-sensitivity plant, because all its elements are unique and it currently lacks some of the spare parts needed in specific situations. Its manufacturing factory has been discontinued and the spare parts have to be manufactured from plans and on request.

The report by Rosell Guerra, director of the Habana Basic Electricity Organization, was equally illustrative. He explained the execution of the electricity renovation project in Arroyo Naranjo as the beginning of a program to replace energy transmission and distribution lines, renew transformers and other elements to improve the voltage, save energy, reduce losses and guarantee a better service to homes and other installations. The investments in the program should be recovered within one year, he affirmed.

Equally interesting was the explanation given by engineer Juan Manuel Presa who, after using graphics indicating forecast energy demand during the summer months, stated that with the incorporation of the generating blocs undergoing maintenance and those presenting faults, an improvement in the service should be seen in the middle of the month, and better still in August.

For his part, Vicente de la O, general director of the National Electrical Union, explained that the current attention being given to the blocs is not only in the context of the summer months within the national system but are works with a view to increasing generation and transmission capacity, among other tasks.

He made reference to a different and much more efficient generating system currently being worked on, in a more decentralized manner in search of a more stable and safe generation, with lower fuel costs, higher profitability and an improved service.

As parallel actions in terms of those objectives he pointed to the total upgrading this year of the one of 100 MW blocs of the CTE plant in east Habana, with a different generation system and with different fuel, as it will have the option of consuming gas or national crude.