Cuba invests heavily in repairing thermic power plants

HAVANA, Cuba, Mar 17 (ACN) In order to add 460 megawatts (MW) to the country's electricity capacity, the Cuban Electrical Union (UNE) is making important investments in the nation's thermal generation.

Edier Guzmán Pacheco, director of Thermal Generation of the UNE said that the transformations are based on the start-up of three new generating blocks of this energy in the thermoelectric power plants (CTE) Máximo Gómez, in the municipality of Mariel; Lidio Ramón Pérez, of Felton, in Holguín, and Antonio Maceo (Renté), in Santiago de Cuba.

At a cost of 22 million pesos and one million dollars, Guzmán Pacheco affirmed that the maintenance of the fifth electric current generating unit at the Renté CTE was concluded, which is expected to contribute 500 gigawatts in just one year.

In the case of the repair of one of the energy producing blocks at the Máximo Gómez TPP, according to the official, it is expected to be completed on April 28 and, as a novelty, for the first time the old bases and foundations were used to assemble the new unit with a capacity of 100 MW, he said.

Also, in the turbine completion stage, a modern block is being assembled at the Felton CTE, which will produce 260 MW and will enter the national electric power system during the summer, Guzmán Pacheco pointed out.

He clarified that these construction works at the Holguin CTE are valued at 75 million Euros and, in order to save imported diesel, he emphasized that domestically produced crude oil will be used.

He also pointed out that the foreign technical assistance in these investments, due to the epidemic, was carried out through videoconferences, which reduced the costs of the works.

The eight thermoelectric plants and 19 generating blocks that make up the entities for the production of electricity are evidence of the nation's energy independence, said the executive.