Cuban first bioelectric power plant shows encouraging results in testing phase

CIEGO DE AVILA, Cuba, Dec 21 (ACN) The 2,018 megawatt-hours generated in five days by Cuba's first bioelectric plant in its test phase and synchronization with the Ciro Redondo sugar mill, which also tested its technology, covered one fifth of the Ciego de Avila province´s daily energy consumption.

Iván Powell Sardison, director of the National Office for the Control of the Rational Use of Energy (ONURE) in the province, explained to the Cuban News Agency (ACN) that this contribution is positive, because with only one boiler, of the two that the bioelectric plant generated 400 megawatt-hours as a daily average.

That - he said - means that it worked 20 hours each of those producing 20 megawatts and it is designed to deliver around 60 megawatts.

He informed that the average consumption of an home is 174 kilowatt-hours per month, so the 2,018 megawatts, which were delivered to the National Electric System, would cover what is spent in a month by some 11,600 houses in the province, which represent 13 percent of the total residential population.

Carmen Taboada Hernández, vice-president of the mixed company Biopower S.A., told ACN that the operation of the plant is part of the testing and start-up process of the bioelectric plant, which on this occasion worked with only one boiler, since the other one was in the phase of drying the refractory.

She added that, with the beginning of the harvest, the Ciro Redondo plant will deliver the bagasse and condensed water to the bioelectric plant, and the latter, which will contribute 30 megawatt-hours to the National Electric System during harvest time, will provide electricity and thermal energy so that it can continue the process.

With Chinese technology, the bioelectric plant investment cost some 140 million dollars and is one of the most important projects in the country, as it is included in the national strategy to expand the use of renewable energy sources.

It will consume 2,100 tons of bagasse in 24 hours during harvest time, and 1,200 to 1,500 tons of marabou during the sugar mill's idle period.

It is the first plant of its kind in Cuba in the foreign investment modality and a pioneer in the use of marabou as fuel, for which the most modern and efficient machines have been acquired.