Unit 1 of the Felton thermoelectric plant, located in the province of Holguín, managed to resume operations and synchronize with the National Electroenergy System this Saturday at 3:20 p.m. after several days of shutdown due to a breakdown.
Official spokesperson Emilio Rodriguez Pupo published on Facebook that the unit is generating 150 MW and progressively increasing its load, an advance that promises to alleviate the blackout crisis that has affected much of Cuba in recent days.
Felton’s restart of operations comes after a boiler breakdown that occurred on Thursday, which left the plant out of service and caused considerable interruptions in the electricity supply, especially in the eastern region of the country.
The failure was due to a “puncture” in the tubes on the left side wall of the boiler, just over three meters high.
The situation was particularly critical, since the failure caused a frequency trip that affected line 5545, impacting the circuits of the municipality of Bartolomé Masó and the La Curva Substation in Granma.
This led the Granma Electric Company to announce unplanned disruptions to servicewith electricity cuts of six hours followed by three hours with service, depending on the availability of electricity generation in the country.
By Friday, work on the boiler was in full swing, with the hope that the unit could restart operations the next day. Technicians worked intensely to repair the damaged pipes and carry out the necessary replacement or welding operations, according to official information.
The Electrical Union (UNE) had announced that if everything went well, the plant would be operational on Saturday.
This effort culminated successfully with the entry into operation of Unit 1under the supervision of the delegate of the Popular Power of the 54th district of the Primero de Enero demarcation in Mayarí, Jorge Luis Rodríguez Guerra, who led the team of operators in shift B.
In the midst of the energy crisis, the restart of Felton Unit 1 represents an important respite for the Cuban population, which has suffered prolonged blackouts due to a lack of generation capacity.
On Thursday, electricity cuts due to a deficit in generation capacity extended for 24 hours, with almost 1,000 MW of deficit during peak hours, which translates into impacts on more than a third of the island.
