Cuban main thermoelectric plant faces crucial maintenance day

 

MATANZAS, Cuba, May 7 (ACN) The Antonio Guiteras Thermoelectric Power Plant (CTE by its Spanish acronym), the largest and most efficient unitary block in Cuba, faces today a cardinal day, according to the number and importance of the planned activities, undergoing a period of light maintenance until next Saturday.

According to Ruben Campos Olmo, general director of the plant, in exclusive statements to the Cuban News Agency, during Wednesday tasks will be carried out in an important group of work fronts, which will define the fulfillment of the shutdown schedule and the synchronization on the estimated date.

Among other actions of the day, we must finish repairing two tubes in the high superheater and remove the baskets of the regenerative air heaters (B) which are in bad condition, as well as replacing a steam exchanger and lowering the 220 kilovolt (KV) portal which we are going to repair," the director commented.

Campos Olmo assured that to date, a rapid response has been achieved in all the areas that demanded human resources, with the willingness and professional capacity that characterizes a workforce that arrives from different parts of the island, aware of the hard challenge of certifying a little more than 600 activities in five days.

According to CTE Guiteras' Facebook profile, up to Wednesday morning, significant progress had already been made in the works of the so-called critical maintenance route, which includes interventions in the boiler and turbine areas, vital to ensure the return of the plant to the electric system with greater stability and a power of around 260 megawatts.

Official data released by the industry show that, up to late April, it remained on line 91 % of the time with a stable generation and fulfilling its production plan at 114 %. In addition, since its last disconnection from the SEN on March 16, it remained 51 uninterrupted days in service until its shutdown on Monday.