The Origin of the Energy Collapse in Cuba
Fidel Castro’s Commitment to Generators
The same mistake is now being made with Chinese photovoltaic parks, which are doomed to failure.
HAVANA TIMES – When the Island was plunged into the first total blackout last year on October 17, both the population and the technicians of the National Electric Union (SEN) wondered if the collapse could have been avoided. The negative answer, after decades of technological carelessness, has its roots in the so-called Energy Revolution, whose promises of stability were never fulfilled.
In obedience to the penultimate utopian idea of an elderly Fidel Castro, the country was “remotorized” in 2006. The generators, newly installed to cover the demand, briefly supported the National Electrical System (SEN). This solution lasted five years, the same time period as the warranties on the equipment.
One by one, the generators began to present problems. The collapse was coming, and for anyone who had technical knowledge of the matter, it was more than predictable. It was a support technology for a system that – mortally wounded after the fall of the Soviet Union and the Special Period – entered the new century in conditions of maximum precariousness.
The SEN already operated with less than half of its total generation capacity, and the authorities, against all logic, made the generators assume much of the country’s consumption needs. Once the warranties on the equipment expired, without economic means to buy new parts or carry out the essential maintenance, the Energy Revolution followed the same path of failures and improvisations as the other Revolution.
All equipment suffers wear and tear. Without maintenance and with sustained operation, any system goes down. While the generators were carrying national demand, the thermoelectric plants – whose condition can be followed every day in the UNE reports – also deteriorated more and more.
The obsolescence of many and the total loss of others caused the greatest alarm in the western region, the one with the highest demand. The typical example is the Otto Parellada, known as Tallapiedra, although the breakdown of the Antonio Guiteras power plant in Matanzas has also been emblematic and was the official cause of the collapse of the SEN in October.
Faced with the debacle of its two energy pillars, the authorities created the illusion that the problem – a daily deficit that exceeds 1,000 megawatts (MW) – could be solved by installing solar panels supplied by China. As in 2006, it was possible to predict that the generators would not last long without maintenance or spare parts, and we can now see the failure of the photovoltaic parks coming.
To generate a single MW, between 3,000 and 4,000 optimal quality solar panels are needed. It would be necessary to cover 20,000 square meters of surface to reach that figure and have battery banks – an additional cost that Cuba has not mentioned – so that the stored energy is usable when the hours of sunshine pass, which coincide with those of higher consumption. In the current economic conditions of the country, a project of that caliber is not viable.
It is true that photovoltaic energy is ecological and does not depend on the use of fossil fuels, but it involves constant maintenance of the sites, which the Cuban authorities have shown, historically, unable to sustain.
Improvisation and the lack of long-term planning remain the slogan, despite the fact that without a stable SEN Cuba will not have a functional industry or a break from the blackouts. While the Energy and Mines authorities always allude to a strategy to get out of the quagmire, the reality speaks for itself.
On January 7, for example, the State newspaper Granma announced that China had come to the rescue of 38 diesel generators by sending “aid” in the form of spare parts: “radiators, motors and other necessary components to be able to recover the equipment that is damaged.” However, the repair will not be effective until February, nor will it provide the 58 MW that, in theory, it is capable of generating.
The shipment was not enough for all the provinces. Ciego de Ávila, Artemisa and Mayabeque will have to wait for the next aid package to repair their generators. Hua Xin, China’s ambassador to the Island and architect of the rapprochement between the two countries in recent months, assured that his country’s goal is for the SEN to “recover” the 400 MW lost from the deterioration of the equipment.
To what extent does this “aid” solve the Cuban energy problem? Will it end the blackouts? The answer is again negative. The country needs 3,000 MW per day to meet its demand, avoid collapse and put an end to the blackouts. The only possible truce does not come from the Ministry of Energy and Mines, but from the climate, more benevolent in these first two months of the year.
When this period of low temperatures ends and the tropical heat returns, the use of air conditioners and fans will again cause blackouts. The SEN needs fuel and spare parts, two pending issues that the Government has not resolved. The generators that run on fuel oil could also be reactivated and recovered, but everything has a high economic cost that the authorities are not willing to pay.
There is light at the end of the tunnel, but to turn on that light it is necessary for the country to manage to sustain 50% of its generation capacity, while recovering – with maintenance and new equipment – the other half of the SEN.
Translated by Regina Anavy for Translating Cuba.
In Canada maintenance of wind power is much higher than solar panels but many solar panels only have a 15 year life span especially those made in China. Solar is only a partial solution for up to 30% of the power needs between 800 in the morning and 1800 hrs but can work for certain soft demand like air-conditioning items
Natural gas turbine generator has a total lower cost for power produced than wind or solar providing Cuba has enough of it own natural gas from wells much cheaper than large oil or diesel generators to operate in certain parts of Cuba but will require a huge investment in natural gas wells and pipelines.