Guantanamo.- From the “fence you can shoot your way out”, says Jorge Castillo Valdivia, brigade chief of the Tubular Elements workshop, of the base business unit (UEB, in Spanish) Maintenance Company for Power Plants, Central Repair Center (EMCE), and he also says that, with the current energy situation, the way to get ahead is to work almost 24 hours a day, looking for solutions with the few resources available, and “putting our feet on the ground, to get ahead”.
Jorge – with more than 50 years of uninterrupted work in the company – is clear about it: the volume of work is very large, but “if they get discouraged, we will not get out of the problem”, and the priority is to finish the tubular elements of the boilers of Unit 4 of the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes thermoelectric power plant (CTE), in Cienfuegos, and machine 2 of the Ernesto Guevara CTE, in Santa Cruz del Norte, in Mayabeque.
“And so they can synchronize for the summer and attenuate, a little, the problem of energy deficit we have in the country.
“The brigades are made up of workers from almost all the provinces, and even on Saturdays and Sundays we are here. The rigor we maintain is strong, because we are all aware of how much society needs energy.
MAINTENANCE, THE PRIORITY
Arriving at the EMCE means finding a hustle and bustle of people, with parts and equipment in hand, who innovate along the way, until the product is finished.
The head of the Tubular Elements Workshop, Armando Estopiñán Monteagudo, when explaining the manufacturing process of the aggregates needed by the thermoelectric plants, expresses that, thanks to the electrocontact welding machine, out of order since 2016 and recently put into operation by the ingenuity of the workers, it has been possible to deliver the tubular elements for the Santa Cruz and Cienfuegos CTEs.
“We have obsolete machinery, but that is no reason to stop, because if the workshop does not work, the construction of the aggregates does not progress. Eighty percent of the elements for the country’s boilers are made here.”
The company is made up of seven workshops, six of which have different production processes that contribute directly to Unión Eléctrica, and one for maintenance.
By the end of July and August, respectively, the synchronization of Unit 4 of CTE Carlos Manuel de Céspedes and machine 2 of CTE Ernesto Guevara is foreseen.
Regarding the main works that contribute to maintenance, Delvys Echegoyen Díaz, director of the Central Repair Unit, said that the tubular elements for these thermal units are being completed.
“Of the spare parts for the boiler of the CTE Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, 15 coils of the primary superheater are missing, which are in the process of hydraulic testing and assembly of accessories, for their subsequent transportation to the thermal unit”.
Together they are manufacturing the economizer of the Santa Cruz CTE, in addition to the reheater two, and a hanging ceiling superheater, additions for which they are working non-stop, because “the completion date is closely linked to the assembly date”.
Delvys Echegoyen points out that five boards of this economizer are delivered every day to speed up the process, and all the coils are already welded; “in addition, the microblocks will start to be welded”.
Then, when the task is ready, they will start to manufacture the curves of the high temperature reheater of the CTE Antonio Guiteras, with a larger diameter than expected, assures the Director of the UEB.
OTHER HANDS, MORE CONTRIBUTIONS
For the generation of electricity in the country, many hands are joined. The work must be parallel, without pause. For this reason, in the Mixed Boilermaking workshop, where all the miscellaneous parts of the boilers are made, the hot gas ducts are being manufactured.
Carlos Alberto Otero Gutiérrez, head of the workshop, said that for the last three months they have been working for Unit 2 of the Santa Cruz thermoelectric plant, and the parts have been partially delivered.
On the other hand, for the same CTE, the baskets through which the gases generated by the boilers are introduced are finished.
Edilberto Tuz Acosta, workshop manager of Cortes y Cestos C.A.R. (Regenerative Air Heater), adds that the baskets for the CTE 10 de Octubre, in Nuevitas, Camagüey, are also ready.
“In addition, the preparations of the sheets for the cold baskets of the CTE number 3 in Santa Cruz are being made,” he says.
For Jorge Castillo, there is no doubt that their work is essential: “The thermoelectric plants would
