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Published: Monday, 22 July 2019 08:41

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Photo: TrabajadoresMatanzas, Jul 22 .- With a joy difficult to hide, Pablo Piedra Díaz informs the National Cargo Office: "We have reached 270 megawatt (MW) hour", says and the eyes of the members of the guard number 2, the younger among the four who work in such a strategic site.

When yesterday at nine o'clock in the morning the team led by Piedra Díaz occupied its position in the CTE, the plant generated 260 MW. Three hours later an exhaustive adjustment in the operating parameters allowed us to gain 10 MW, a contribution translated into greater load availability for the National Electric Power System (SEN).

"After the synchronization to the SEN, it touches the stabilization of the load and improve its efficiency," says Yadierquis Pérez Calunga, head of the block. This supposes, he argues, the constant monitoring of parameters such as temperature, pressure, flow or vibrations.

After a maintenance where so many people intervene it is normal the mismatch of a valve of any equipment. "Correcting these unforeseen events is our mission," says Díaz. "In this opportunity we solved problems related to the vacuum, and that caused to elevate the load and the efficiency, balance very convenient so much for the Guiteras as for the tranquility of the population, of the country".

Accustomed to winning praise for the expertise and delivery of the group he directed, Piedra confirms that he is always ready to respond to extreme situations similar to the one experienced after the plant was paralyzed on July 16, a day on which it had dawned working

"My turn was in the house when we found out. I immediately called and they told me what it was about. One is already preparing for the task. The next thing is to assume and give everything to respond as expected from a thermoelectric plant like this one, which has learned to get through the bad times. "

When, in September of 2017, Hurricane Irma hit the Guiteras, Piedra and his boys met precisely at the same time. The stories of heroism they portray are still remembered.

"There is a lot of commitment to a place that is part of our family. And for the family one gives everything ", says excited Yadierquis.

To be from here involves a special bond, says the veteran Piedra and the young Edel Scull, Yoandris Flores, Yariel Torrens and Raúl Rufín nod their heads.

Although in the control room, known as BTG, Piedra and his team boast of the prestige gained from good work, they recognize that the sense of belonging is an attribute of the more than 400 men and women of the CTE.

Exactly that daily delivery enhances the value of what was done by those who on Tuesday 16 began the repair of the breakdown caused by the decommissioning of this plant, considered as a unit block the most efficient in Cuba, due to its low oil consumption to generate electricity.

Race of champions

One in February and another in December, two stops made the CTE last year. None, however, affected as much as this damage, aggravated, in essence, by several circumstances: the deficit of generation capacity produced by the output of other plants of the SEN, by planned maintenance or by mishaps.

Adalberto Navarro Prada, head of boiler of the Maintenance Company of Power Plants (Emce), estimates that in Guiteras any problem is solved immediately. However, the pressure doubles in a context similar to what we had, he says.

Rubén Campos Olmo, director of the plant, explains the repercussions of a breakdown that has nothing to do with an operational error. The plant was stable when it happened, he argues, what is known as a blowout. The initial leaking of the boiler is produced by a small hole in a weld bead of one of the tubes and that chorrillo, at high pressure, hits another tube and weakens it, does not resist and explodes ... ".

To be able to enter the area of ​​the damage, a cooling process was needed. The procedure, predicted between 30 and 34 hours, was carried out in 24. This was the first of the several steps that in a period of just over 72 hours synchronized the CTE to the SEN, a fact achieved a little before Saturday, the day that It had been announced.

Seeing the plant in full service is an indescribable pride, interviewees like welder Javier Weekes Sosa agree; warehouse employee Iran Julio Angeric Rodríguez; and Julio Panucia López, head of the support brigade of the boiler area.

From the role they represent, each one had a leading role. According to the engineer Campos Olmo, the welders worked in conditions of high complexity and provided valuable solutions, in a place where the hundreds of pipes and their arrangement made it difficult to access and made the work more complex.

After the passage to normality, teamwork and support much is spoken in a collective where the national directorates of the Electric Union (UNE) and the Emce are thanked to the ministries of Energy and Mines and Industries, as well as as well as the political and governmental authorities of the municipality and the province. As has been common, the union at all levels again mobilized the forces to undertake recovery work and solve the damage in the shortest possible time.

Founded in March 1988, at the time of its mishap, the CTE had closed a successful first semester of the year, stage where it recorded a figure of more than one million megawatt, as a result of having contributed more than 160 thousand MW over the planned.

To this amount is added the positive performance of the efficiency indicators, which allowed to overcommit the commercial production and tax the economy of the municipality, the province and the nation.

Despite this breakdown, says director Campos Olmo, the center maintains the possibility of meeting its productive and efficiency goals for the year, a commitment they will never give up. (Trabajadores)