HAVANA: Cuba is racing to install thousands of container-sized diesel generators across the island to avoid another situation like the one last summer when widespread blackouts fanned popular unrest.
President Fidel Castro has taken personal responsibility for what he calls an “energy revolution” prompted by widespread complaints about the failings of Cuba’s obsolete power plants.
His supporters say the first-of-its-kind energy plan is a stroke of genius. His critics see it as a desperate blunder.
The generators are being grouped in clusters and connected to the electrical grid so they can feed the national system or operate independently in all 14 provinces.
“The unit consists of 32 generators in eight groups...capable of generating 60.4 megawatts,” state-run news agency AIN said of one cluster in eastern Holguin province.
The one- to two-megawatt generators, each capable of powering a whole neighbourhood, are also being installed at key facilities around the Caribbean island, such as hospitals and factories.
Around $800 million has been spent so far to import generators, mainly from Spain, Germany and South Korea.
Castro has promised to put an end to the frequent outages that Cubans have had to live with since the collapse of Soviet communism plunged their country into economic crisis.
He has also vowed to provide every Cuban home with new electrical appliances from China that use less power, from stoves and fans to refrigerators, in many cases replacing inefficient U.S.-made products dating from the 1950s.
Cuba’s communist-run state is also replacing millions of incandescent light bulbs with energy-saving fluorescent ones.
Castro says his “energy revolution” will pay for itself by saving Cuba at least $1 billion a year in generating costs.
Part of the cost will be borne by Cubans who for decades have enjoyed heavily subsidised electricity. Rates were jacked up last year, rising steeply for homes that use more power.
Blackouts have wreaked havoc on the daily life of Cubans and the economy since the demise of the Soviet Union deprived their country of generous oil shipments.
Now Cuba is receiving ample oil with preferential financing from Venezuela, but the electrical grid itself is a shambles.
The island’s seven aging oil-fired power plants can generate about 2,700 megawatts, but operate at only 60 per cent of capacity due to breakdowns and maintenance halts.
For over a decade, the plants have run on locally produced high-sulphur oil that clogs and damages the equipment.
The entire system nears collapse when a hurricane strikes transmission lines or two or more plants go out of service at the same time. It can barely cover national consumption in peak periods when Cubans turn on fans and air conditioners.
With outages of 12 hours and longer last summer, Cubans were having trouble keeping cool in the tropical heat, while food rotted in their refrigerators. In crowded central Havana, public discontent emerged as small street protests.
The government scrambled to find a quick solution.
By May, according to Castro, hundreds of generators will have added the equivalent of three 350-megawatt power plants that would cost $1.7 billion and take six years to build.
More will be added until Cuba can phase out its oil-burning power plants, while keeping two newer gas-fired ones.
Cuba is spending a further $250 million to replace old transmission lines, transformers and breakers so the grid can can handle increased demand as Cubans still cooking with kerosene and wood fires go electric.
Since the generators began to arrive, blackouts have all but disappeared. But the real test will come with the hot summer months when demand peaks.
Cubans give the energy plan mixed reviews.
“Those of us who support the revolution support the plan; those who do not, as always, think it is crazy,” a Communist Party militant said.
“There is no doubt it is an ingenious, though expensive, way for them to quickly solve their immediate problems,” a Western diplomat said.
“The question we all have is what will happen in a few years. Generators have never been used as the basis of a power system before, anywhere,” he said.
Cuban officials brush off such concerns and insist the strategy has been well thought out.
But foreign electrical engineers say it is a recipe for a logistics nightmare as thousands of generators will have to be constantly supplied with diesel and their engines serviced.—Reuters
