Unit 6 of the “Diez de Octubre” thermoelectric plant (CTE) in Nuevitas, Camagüey, was once again out of service less than 24 hours after being synchronized to the National Electric System (SEN). This unit had been on technical shutdown for maintenance for 77 days..
The part of the Electrical Union of Cuba (A) corresponding to this Tuesday indicated that Unit 6 of the CTE Nuevitas was damaged. However, the National Television News (NTV) this Monday reported its synchronization to the SEN after “corrective actions”.
“Unit 6 of the thermoelectric plant is currently delivering more than 90 Mega Watts, stably to Cuba. That block received corrective actions, mainly in the boiler area. The stoppage also made it possible to solve faults in automatic equipment and turbine elements,” said the NTV on their social networks.
Likewise, the report highlighted that "although it does not fully cover the deficit in generation capacities faced by UNE, the reestablishment of machine 6 makes it possible to reduce blackout times and increase the stability of the system, in the Central and Eastern provinces of the country." .
“The block progressively restores its charges. The specialists pointed out that after synchronization, the machine parameters express positive values. The boiler was a priority for maintenance. The authorities highlighted the replacement of elements that caused constant departures from the unit,” the official journalist highlighted on Monday. Bernardo Espinosa.
The engineer Orlando Anazco Ponce de Leon, brigade director of the Nuevitas Power Plant Maintenance Company, pointed out that “the entire economizer was changed.” The piece was manufactured by operators from the CTE Felton of Holguín and the assembly was carried out by workers from Nuevitas.
“We also worked on a very large percentage of the regenerative air heater that was in very poor condition. And accompanying works during the 77 days that were planned for maintenance. There they worked on ducts, on joints, on floodgates…” added the manager.
According to Espinosa, in the two and a half months of shutdown for maintenance, “specialized workshops of the Power Plant Maintenance Company of the capital, together with engineers and technicians from the thermoelectric plant, assumed highly complex and highly accurate procedures.”
“We repaired six turbine bearings that were also already asking for repair. In the case of the CAR (Regenerative Air Heaters), which is another of the elements that was heavily intervened, it was possible to carry out a significant level of repairs and change all of the CAR baskets, managing to assemble all the baskets new ones and the sealing of the complete CAR in the unit,” explained the engineer Jorge Luis Maceira Esteva, general director of CTE Nuevitas.
According to thesis of the engineer Ariel Cogollos Izaguirre, the corrosion and erosion of the baskets is due to the uneven deterioration caused by the action of the combustion gases and the non-stationary field of temperatures that is established in the CAR as a consequence of its operation.
This uneven deterioration causes an imbalance in the weight of the baskets and favors failure due to fatigue. The use of 100% national crude oil as fuel in Nuevitas does not help the effect of the repairs to last over time.
“They also intervened in a regulation valve, regulation valve number 3 of the turbine that was damaged. And work was done on the regulatory system and its cleaning,” added the engineer. Esmeraudy Labañino, Automatics specialist at CTE Nuevitas.
According to the official media report, “the maintenance actions carried out are part of the intervention program to recover power, raise operational reliability parameters and reduce unforeseen outages.”
Bernardo Espinosa stressed that in the intervention carried out “the preparation, planning, control and use of available resources, national and imported, stood out based on the country's base generation.”
Less than 24 hours after the report was broadcast, the journalist who carried it out interviewed the engineer. Lazarus War Hernandez, technical director of the state company, who reported the departure of the system from unit 6 of Nuevitas.
Without offering details about this departure, the manager continued with his litany of breakdowns and maintenance without Espinosa remembering where he had been the day before, or why.
In his presence, the UNE director withheld information about what happened to unit 6 of Nuevitas, while the journalist recommended that the population "stay informed through official channels."
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