More than 500 men from the provinces of Ciego de Ávila, Las Tunas, Granma, Guantánamo, Santiago de Cuba, Matanzas and Mayabeque, among other forces, contributed to returning the service to the residents of the capital.

Luis Antonio Torres Iríbar, first secretary of the Provincial Committee of the Party, highlighted the dedication and sacrifice of these brigades, which allowed the restoration of electricity in the city.

“His effort ratified that we can suffer dissimilar situations, but we must always maintain confidence in the Revolution, which since it was born did so alongside the humble and for the humble, and leaves no one helpless,” said the party leader.

At the close of six in the afternoon this Monday, a figure of more than 98% of Havana customers had the fluid in their homes, reported the Electric Company of Havana on its Facebook profile.

The collaboration of the 35 lineman brigades from other territories will now be extended to Pinar del Río, the scene most affected by the meteorological phenomenon.

(With information from the website of the Presidency and Canal Habana)

Brigadier General Luis Antonio Pantoja, military and air attaché of the Mexican embassy in Havana, wished the country a speedy recovery and pointed out that after estimating the devastating consequences of Ian, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador decided to send aid.

He said that several institutions have established an air bridge for the arrival of resources to the affected areas.

“This great nation has experienced in this type of adversity, the contingency will be a battle that they will resolve satisfactorily,” he said.

Likewise, I have recognized the will of the Cuban people, their effort and dedication in such complex moments.

Pantoja referred to the flights of four planes of the Mexican Air Force, uninterruptedly for four hours. In addition, he provides other itineraries with trained personnel.

The military and air attache of the Mexican embassy in Havana said that “for those of us who wear the military uniform there are missions that give us special satisfaction, today I feel grateful to be part of this history, written jointly between our countries, with a bridge of brotherhood and solidarity, built in a solid and constant way”.

For his part, the Mexican ambassador to the island, Miguel Díaz Reynoso, asserted that the arrival of this plane, with a load of pole-type insulators, ends a first stage of aid.

He declared that the last days showed cooperation, solidarity, friendship and hope. He also announced the upcoming arrival of Mexican doctors to study specialties in Cuba.

(With information from Prensa Latina)

Shortly before the president’s arrival, unit 2 of that CTE was already contributing 23 MW to part of the SEN in western Cuba.

To the extent that this unit increases power and gains in stability, the conditions to advance in synchronization with the national electricity system will improve.

Footprints of Ian in Mayabeque: 85% of the damage is concentrated in three municipalities
At a meeting of the Provincial Defense Council of Mayabeque, President Díaz-Canel received updated information on the effects that have been verified after the passage of Hurricane Ian and the recovery actions that have been undertaken.

85% of the damage is concentrated in the municipalities of Batabanó, Melena del Sur and San Nicolás, where the penetrations of the sea caused flooding that still persists in many places.

According to the president of the Provincial Defense Council, Yuniaky Crespo, of the more than 12,000 people who had to be evacuated in the province, even more than 3,000 have not been able to return to their homes.

961 hectares of various crops have been affected in some way, mainly in the municipalities of Quivicán, Melena del Sur, Güines and Batabanó. Half of the damage to agriculture is concentrated in cassava and plantain crops.
Given the floods that occurred in several places in the province, of greater magnitude than on previous occasions, Díaz-Canel insisted on the importance of constantly updating our risk reduction and prevention plans in the face of natural disasters.

As lines that should be prioritized in the future in the municipality of Batabanó, he highlighted the need to build increasingly resistant houses, advance in the sewerage project that is already being worked on, and restore the roads with materials that are less vulnerable to seawater.

The president highlighted the way in which work has been organized in the province, where intelligent ideas have been adopted that can be useful in other territories. “There are conditions here to overcome the current situation in a short time,” he assured.

Diaz-Canel later came to the municipality of Batabanó to evaluate recovery actions that are being put in place and to exchange with the people.

Together with residents of the Surgidero de Batabanó community, the Head of State explained that they are working to advance in sanitation work. “Everything is not going to be resolved all at once, but everything will be taken care of and no one will be left helpless,” assured the president.

On the road to the Batabanó Port Terminal, the president stopped the caravan to greet FAR soldiers who have been decisive in the recovery. The president inquired about his study and work plans. “Take a photo journalist we want this memory,” said a soldier.

En carretera a Terminal Portuaria de Batabanó el mandatario detuvo la caravana para saludar a soldados de las FAR que han sido decisivos en la recuperación. El presidente indagó por sus planes de estudio y trabajo. “Tire una foto periodista que queremos este recuerdo”, dijo un soldado.

En el municipio de Melena del Sur, concluyó el presidente su recorrido de este jueves. Junto a varios productores compartió ideas sobre la siembra de cultivos y su aprovechamiento para incrementar las ofertas de alimentos a la población.

According to the latest bulletin from the US National Hurricane Center (NHC), Fiona is located about 80 kilometers from the coast of the island. It is specified that the cyclone generates maximum sustained winds of 128 kilometers per hour, with gusts of up to 160 kilometers per hour.

The NHC reported that heavy rains will continue until tonight in the south and east of the island, registering from today until Monday in the Dominican Republic. These rains will produce life-threatening flash flooding and urban flooding in Puerto Rico and the eastern Dominican Republic, along with landslides and landslides in areas of higher ground.

This same day, the US president, Joe Biden, had declared a state of emergency on the island. “President Joe Biden declared that an emergency exists in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and ordered federal assistance to supplement Commonwealth and local response efforts due to emergency conditions resulting from Tropical Storm Fiona, which began on September 17, 2022 and continues,” the statement read.

In addition, the local authorities of Puerto Rico will be provided with the equipment and aid resources provided in the event of a disaster to “alleviate the difficulties and suffering caused by the emergency in the local population.”

(With information from RT in Spanish)

Unit 8 of it, which went out of service last night, is already in the start-up process and should be online at noon this Saturday, with 85 MW.

In addition, work is being done to recover unit 6, damaged by a fire last March.

During the tour, Díaz-Canel updated on the strategy outlined in the country for the recovery of the electrical system. In this sense, he indicated that parts and components are entering the country to recover generation.

The head of state highlighted as objectives of the plan, minimizing blackouts before the end of the year, developing investments and maintenance in 2023 to achieve stability, and changing the country’s energy matrix.

In this way, he added, before the end of December, some 280 megawatts (MW) must be incorporated into thermal generation; and between 180 and 190 MW in distributed generation; in addition to 450 MW from new investments.

He refers to information from the Presidency that financing has also been given for investments in new technologies and new measures aimed at high consumers have been approved.

“We have complex days left, but we are going to recover. There are many people working at the foot of the canyon to get out of this difficult situation,” said the president.

He reiterated that updated information is systematically offered by the media on the situation of the national electricity system, which has generated the annoying blackouts.

Such a scenario, he maintained, is not related to enemy activity, nor negligence of the workers in the sector, and it does have to do, and the matrixes against the Revolution are trying to erase it, with the effects that the blockade has caused for years. .

This policy, he added, left the country without possible financing for the maintenance, repair and new investments it needed in the Electroenergetic system, hence the accumulated technological deterioration that cannot be resolved in a short time.

He recalled that in mid-June, a special information program revealed the strategy that had been proposed at that time to avoid blackouts in the summer months, which allowed the recovery of unit 8 of the CTE Máximo Gómez and a block in the CTE Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, from Cienfuegos.

However, effects in Felton and the instability of the CTE Antonio Guiteras, in Matanzas, the most important in the country, had a negative impact on the strategy and power generation.

Given these adversities, Díaz-Canel explained, the strategy was updated, which has three fundamental objectives: to minimize blackouts in the shortest possible time (before the end of the year), to develop investments and maintenance in 2023 that strengthen the system, as well as to change the energy matrix of the country.

It is expected, before December, to incorporate more than 270 MW in thermal generation, he highlighted.

The Máximo Gómez CTE has a total generation of 282 MW, between four units, motors and mobile generation.

In addition, it is estimated that some 40 MW will be incorporated (it will be 80 MW) after the maintenance of block 5 and the execution of investments for distributed generation with new technologies, which represents a great contribution to the country.

Díaz-Canel arrives at CTE Ernesto Guevara, from Santa Cruz del Norte
The President of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, also visited this Saturday the Ernesto Guevara Thermoelectric Power Plant, located in Santa Cruz del Norte, in the western province of Mayabeque.

Through his Twitter account, the Presidency announced that this plant maintains its three units in service and is one of the most stable in the country.

From August 14 to 20, week 33 of the year, transmission was opened in the provinces of Mayabeque (in the municipality of Güines), Cienfuegos (in Rodas) and Guantánamo (in Caimanera), it was reported at the meeting this Tuesday of the Group temporary work of the Government for the prevention and control of Covid-19.

In videoconference format with the political and government authorities of the 15 provinces and the special municipality of Isla de la Juventud, the exchange was led, from the Palace of the Revolution, by the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and President of the Republic , Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, and the member of the Political Bureau and Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero Cruz.

An analysis of the epidemiological situation of dengue and Aedes Aegypti at the end of week 33 was presented by Dr. Carilda Peña García, Deputy Minister of Public Health, who reported that 22,509 SUMA IgM samples were processed for dengue diagnosis, 933 more than in the previous week.

The studies showed 11,634 reactive cases, 251 more than week 32, but a positivity of 51.7 percent, somewhat lower than the previous period.

The highest positivity corresponded to the special municipality of Isla de la Juventud, as well as to the provinces of Santiago de Cuba, Havana, Las Tunas, Holguín, Camagüey and Guantánamo.

Regarding the levels of infestation of the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, Peña García explained that in week 33, compared to the same week of the previous year, the focus of the vector is higher by 49.5 percent, with 1,683 more foci. Havana, Santiago de Cuba, Holguín, Camagüey, Villa Clara, Matanzas and Las Tunas contribute 74.1 percent of the country’s focus.

Regarding the confrontation and control of COVID-19, it was learned that at the end of last week (August 20), transmission increased by 28.9 percent compared to July.

The highest levels of transmission in the current month occur in Holguín, Santiago de Cuba, Sancti Spíritus, Camagüey, Las Tunas, Havana and Guantánamo, where 71.9 percent of the cases diagnosed in the country during August are concentrated.

In week 33, one death from COVID-19 was reported, after 13 weeks without deaths in Cuba from this cause. The cumulative lethality from the start of the pandemic to August 20 was 0.77 percent (1,109,992 cases with 8,530 deaths).

The meeting of the Temporary Working Group of the Government for the prevention and control of the pandemic, also followed up on the first reported case of monkeypox in the country —which led to the death of the patient, an Italian tourist— and surveillance that is followed with those who had contact with him.

The meeting also paid attention to the strengthening of the distribution system of oxygen and other gases in the territories; and to the continuity of actions to support Cupet by other organizations in the distribution of fuels, as well as the implementation and control of compliance with the organizational measures for its commercialization.

The measures aimed at facing the current energy situation and reducing the effects on the water supply by different methods were addressed; as well as the control of compliance with the plan for programmed effects on the electrical service and the permanent updating of information for the population.

(By: Rene Tamayo)

MSc Ariel Rodríguez, of the Cubaenergía company, explains that the enormous volume of rice husks that remains after each harvest, as a residue of the drying process, is one of the main pollution problems facing the municipality of Los Palacios.

On the other hand, he points out, this complex is among the largest energy consumers in the territory, using more than a ton of diesel a day to dry rice.Hence the idea of ​​seeking technology that would eliminate the problem of husk disposal and find a way to use this byproduct as a resource.

With the support of the Basal project (Environmental Bases for Local Food Sustainability), affiliated with the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment, and international collaboration, the machinery was acquired, and the plant erected, now in the start-up process.Broadly speaking, its operation consists of converting husks into a combustible gas, using this as fuel to dry rice.

Plus, up to 2.4 MWh of electricity can be generated to reduce the plant’s consumption from the national grid, and contribute to the system when the plant is not operating.Engineer Yusniel Illas, director of the plant, stated that the goal is to eventually replace all the diesel that is needed in the drying process.

Awaiting us at the entrance to the giant thermoelectric plant, Planta Centro, the largest of its type in Venezuela, is Oraima Daniel Gómez, who answered our first question:

What is a Cuban women doing, so far from home, working in the arena facing the most sabotage, here in the land of Chávez?

“There are few women in the energy mission, but we make our presence known. The men respect us; they count on our professionalism and dedication to the job. We are part of a very hard-working team that has as its greatest strength, its light, that we are Cubans, and no one can take this away from us,” she replied.

Along the way, you have faced an enemy: sabotage…

“That’s right, the situation changed, but we continue the task. We have plenty of experience in Cuba with the enemy’s persecution, and here we act no differently: we continue focused on the mission and there is no doubt we will complete it,” Oraima insisted.

Engineer Leonardo Tundidor Grande described the plant for us: With its six units and a capacity of 2,600 megawatts, Planta Centro produces the equivalent of all the electricity generated in Cuba, and Unit 5 alone, which Cuban personell is helping to restore, supplies 400 megawatts more than any thermoelectric in Cuba, but U.S. sanctions have practically paralyzed the plant, and only Unit 6 is operating at 50% capacity.

“Maintenance work on Unit 5, which has been out of service for several years, is the biggest job the Electrical Union (UNE) has taken on outside of Cuba,” explained Tundidor, head of the Planta Centro-UNE Cuba project, “which includes 32 Cubans, mechanical, electrical, and automation professionals, plus operators,” he said.

Over the years, the unit suffered many breakdowns, and in April of 2010, Cuba accepted the task of repairing it, including its electrical components and auxiliary equipment. The contingent is now working on the turbine and the steam cauldron, which are almost ready.

“If all the financial resources are assured, within four months, the generator could be started up, and these 400 megawatts will be a big help, given the country’s situation,” Tundidor added.

For his part, Venezuelan engineer Carlos El Hara, his country’s coordinator for the Unit 5 project, recalled that the task of rehabilitating the generator was originally in the hands of the transnational corporation General Electric, and that in meetings with his colleague Tundidor, they agreed that they had the ability to do the work on their own, and the job began.

“It’s almost ready. The end of the month, we’ll begin the washing and blow-out of the cauldrons, with personnel already contracted. We are projecting the unit’s start-up in August, which will mean total stability in the northeastern system and give the entire electrical grid more stability,” he stated.

“As long as there are those who want to put your country in the dark, there are Cubans to defend the current,” I remind them.

“That’s excellent! Anyone who comes to help Venezuela is welcome. I know that, in the end, the work will succeed, and even better if is done among brothers and sisters,” the Venezuelan engineer added.

Fifty kilometers to the south of Planta Centro, another 13 professionals in from the Cuban energy mission continue their consulting work at the distributed generation plant in Guacara. The young Venezuelan operator María Marval says: “Since they arrived, they have been fundamental. Without their help, we wouldn’t be generating. They share their knowledge serenely. They have helped us a a great deal.”

Yojanner Cuevas Fernández from Guantanamo, the lead advisor here in Guacara, explained, “With the 95.2 megawatts generated here at Guacara and the 104.8 from Tucacas, in the state of Falcón, we have a 200 megawatt project that produces energy for the national electrical grid. This past November, technological responsibility was transferred to Venezuelan personnel, and a few Cubans remain to provide technical assistance and advice.”

“Since the sabotage at the Simón Bolívar hydroelectric plant, we have had to work in isolation, that is separated from the national electrical energy system and assume generation on the basis of a substation, for the residential sector in

Carabobo,” Cuevas continued.

- How do you deal with your work being targeted by the right and imperialism?

“It must be faced with political conviction and responsibility. This is a task that the homeland assigned us, on the initiative of Comandantes Fidel and Chávez, and we are giving it continuity.”

- How do you defend the people’s light and the Bolivarian Revolution?

“We suffer just like the Venezuelan people, and in our trench, generating electricity, we assume everything with commitment. We are going to maintain the stability and availability of the plant, continue to advise and train Venezuelans to leave them well prepared when the project ends. We are working very hard to ensure that light prevails.”

With 27 years of experience, Cuban operator Leonel Peña Batista confesses that he had never seen sabotage up close. His “professional enemies” were others. “The fight was tough, very hard, coming to the plant at eleven o’clock at night, one in the morning… through dark streets, to try to generate power for the hospital in Guacara, to push ahead alongside Venezuelans… the situation was difficult,” he says.“This has been a great experience,” Peña continued, “It helped me a lot. In Cuba I have faced hurricanes, but nothing like this. One always learns from new experiences. We triumphed and continue giving what we can to our brothers here.”- You defeated imperialism…“We won! All their sabotage, their war against Venezuela were defeated. They used snipers in El Guri, electromagnetic waves, viruses… we defeated all that. Imperialism was betting on a blackout; but we are committed to maintaining this Revolution’s energy,” the Cuban internationalist concludes.

(Granma)