Cuba repairs generator units with Chinese spare parts

HAVANA, Cuba, Jan 7 (ACN) A group of 38 diesel-powered generators, with a total generation capacity of 53.8 megawatts (MW), should be repaired during January and February and ready to deliver electricity, according to officials of the Electrical Power Corporation.

In statements to Granma newspaper, Arles Luna Leiva, director of Distributed Generation of the entity, explained that this will be possible thanks to a first arrival of supplies from China, which when completed will allow the recovery of 400 MW in this type of generation.

This shipment, he said, contains radiators, motors and other accessories necessary for the recovery of the damaged equipment.

Arriving in late December, the parts are being shipped to all the country's provinces, except Ciego de Avila, Artemisa and Mayabeque, Luna Leiva added.
According to the executive, these territories will receive the accessories for the repair of their equipment in the other shipments, since they do not need the parts that arrived in this first one.

Granma points out that the Chinese government's Distributed Electric Generator Equipment and Spare Parts for Cuba project foresees the arrival of the next batches by charter flights, commercial flights or containerized maritime transport.

The text highlights that in Cuba, the distributed generation that consumes diesel fuel shows a significant deterioration, with a current availability of 36 %.
The causes, it added, are due to the lack of stable credit lines and to overexploitation, since the equipment is designed to work no more than four hours a day, and in some cases it has been necessary to operate them 24 hours a day, as a consequence of the loss of capacity in other technologies.