It was announced early in the morning by engineer Lázaro Guerra Hernández, technical director of the Cuban Electrical Union (UNE), in the magazine Buenos Dias, and by noon it was a reality: the Ciro Redondo bioelectric plant synchronized with the National Electro-energetic System (SEN by its Spanish initials).
The purpose is that with the operation of one of the two boilers of the plant, it contributes a power of around 20 MW (megawatts) for peak night hours, a minimum figure but that represents a respite from the tense energy situation that the country is experiencing due to generation capacity deficits.
Around noon this Tuesday, the plant synchronized and entered a process of increasing assimilation of loads and gradual incorporation into the electrical network, still as part of the period of tests and adjustments to the different systems and technological equipment, Ariel Díaz Román told Invasor, director of the Ciro Redondo bioelectric plant.
Much has been written about the benefits of the synchronization between the Ciro Redondo factory and the Bio-electric power plant: the plant will supply steam and electricity to the colossus, and this bagasse, in a reciprocal relationship, where any failure maximizes the risks.
A few minutes later, the first secretary of the Party in the province, Liván Izquierdo Alonso, visited the center, who, in an exchange with workers and managers, found out that the process was going according to the expected parameters.
Currently, the boiler in operation works from the consumption of marabou biomass, of which coverage is available for just over a month, which will increase as the limitations with the delivery of diesel improve, Carmen Taboada Hernández, vice president of the mixed company Biopower S.A, said.
The daily biomass consumption of this bioelectric plant is around 800 tons (t), although at startups it is a little more. The last synchronization of this factory was last February, and then stopped due to the biomass deficit of the aforementioned invasive plant, due to the constant breakage of the harvesting machines.
"The liquidity problems for the acquisition of spare parts for the marabou harvesters is the main reason that has paralyzed us all this time," Taboada Hernández held.
The debts of the agribusiness weigh in Ciego de Ávila
The start of milling at the Ciro Redondo mill and its synchronization with the Bioelectric plant seemed settled at the beginning of January 2022, but the joy lasted for a moment and the exchange parameters returned to put the harvest in this province at risk, where the large investment, valued at more than 330 million pesos, does not finish seeing the light and translate into sugar and energy.
Regarding the second boiler, the vice president of Biopower S.A. He said that the redesign work continues on the boiler feeding system to burn one hundred percent of bagasse, scheduled until next December for the start of the harvest. Likewise, tests are carried out on the turbine.