How "lights is mode" in the mountains
The Cuban State is allocating millions of dollars to ensure that there is electricity -through generators and photovoltaic solar panels, in 320 intricate communities and in around 8,000 isolated homes that are located in rugged eastern Cuba.
Author: Luis Alberto Portuondo | internet@granma.cu
April 1st, 2024
In Santiago de Cuba, the government's goal of providing electricity to tens of thousands of people who live and work in the most intricate areas is significant. Even though the capacity to generate electricity by the National Electric System (SEN) has fluctuated greatly in recent years – mainly because of well known causes and conditions – the results in fulfilling the government’s objective of providing electricity to the area have been significant. The efforts have been financially supported by an extraordinary state subsidy.
It is a promise made by the Revolution and we are not willing to give it up even when confronted by needs, mountains and the most challenging geography of the island.
A total of 420 modules of solar photovoltaic panels have already been shipped from the People's Republic of China. They cost six million dollars, including the batteries to replace defective ones that are currently in place in many homes. In the heart of Sierra Maestra, 277 families living in El Macho and La Magdalena are aware of this project in detail; they will benefit from it. The person advocating for this project who is to be implemented soon is Yisel Fonseca Mendez, delegate of the 78th district of Guama. “I spoke even with the Minister of Energy and Mines, and light can already be seen at the end of the tunnel, because the panels are not new in this area. Ask Ana Iris Martinez Gomez, who lives in Rio La Mula has had a similar system for six years” who is also deputy to the National Assembly of Popular Power.
In La Caoba, north to this territory and in Sierra Cristal, Geobel Mendoza Herrera awaits anxiously the arrival of the tanker trucks bringing oil destined to the generation of electricity in the area of Joturo. “I put my tractor to the service of our community because the roads are bad and I know these mountains like the palm of my hands” said the campesino with a machete in one hand and a cellular phone in the other after connecting with Orlando Orive Silva, chief of brigade attending a 31 of the 81 communities in Santiago generating electricity this way.
The Sun helps the hot land
There are 1 963 houses isolated but having solar panels. Specialists from the Industrial Plant and Technological Equipment Repair Company (Empresa de Reparación de Plantas Industriales y Equipos Tecnológicos) operating in the provinces of Granma, Holguín, Santiago and Guantánamo– travel tens of kilometers to provide maintenance to the modules. Their connection with the campesino families of the areas they serve become endearing.
"There's no shortage of coffee, I sneak it in early in the morning, so they can go up to the last house. I'm happy, imagine, I only pay ten pesos a month for this service," says Ana Iris Martínez Gómez, who has in her home, in addition to a panel, the public telephone serving all the residents of Río La Mula.
"The installed modules are of 300 watts, supporting a 32-inch TV and five LED luminaires, included in the module. They certainly do not meet the needs of households, but they provide light at night," emphasizes Orlando Riera Girón, director of investments at the Electric Company of Santiago de Cuba.
In 40 percent of the houses (778) there are issues, especially with the batteries. «As soon as they arrive in Cuba we will replace them, as we always do. Now we are focused on implementing the mentioned Project with the University of Sancti Spiritus, that would make possible the installation of the modules of 2,2 kilowatts; they include a battery, accumulator and inverter, with an estimated duration of 25 years, and will allow you to connect a television, a refrigerator, a washing machine and a kitchen,” says Riera Girón.
The price of each module in the market is between 1900 and 2400 dollars “despite actual cost, people will pay as before, ten pesos; both communities will also receive two water pumps and a fridge so they can conserve their food, explained a director. He remembers that, since the 1990s, and as an initiative of the Commander in chief, similar panels have been installed in schools and theaters which were not connected to the National Electrical Service (Servicio de Electricidad Nacional). Thousands of these panels have been installed, with a high cost of financial and material resources, but with a very rewarding and high social impact on people’s lives.
"These are our thermoelectric plants.”
Elárides Montero Figueredo started as a substitute in the Chamarreta 2 mountain generator set, "and for the last five years I have been the operator. The people here take great care of this equipment which, although it generates only four hours a day, has become our thermoelectric plant and is a totally free service."
We know the people living in El Naranjal, with their delegate in front and their pickaxes, hoes and shovel rehabilitating the narrow road for the triple truck to arrive with the fuel. In the early hours of the morning, Maria Caridad Jiménez Parra, shift manager at the ServiCupet Siboney, in San Luis, stopped the long queue of vehicles because "whenever the ambulances and mountain cars arrive, you have to stop what you are doing, they become the priority.
More to the North, the people in El Berjel and Limones are taking care. Aracelis Ricardo and Minerva Peña are operaries. “It is a work of care, I was afraid of electricity, but now I am used to it. I have my salary and in the neighbourhood everybody knows me as the Misses of the generator set” she said with much pride, Aracelis.
“The electrical company looks after 79 communities that, because they are far away, are not connected to SEN groups that were before managed by Communal Services. We need to say that the lack of fuel has also caused a lack of services in some áreas; and yet, overall we have coverage for more than 20 days per month. The estate asumes transportation, maintenance, salaries, while the sense of belonging of the population is high,” shared Osvaldo Bell Sanchez, director of the company unit of base of Emergency Generators (Generacion de Emergencia).
It is also important to note that the communities of Paraiso (San Luis) and La Gran Piedra (Santiago de Cuba) generates electricity 24 hours a day with support from Geysel (Electrogenic Groups and Electrical Services Company) as per information provided by functionaries of that company to Granma, and that they are vital for both local government and the population.
Through mini-hydroelectric plants, many families have electricity, as has been the case for decades in Pedernal (San Luis) and in dozens of towns throughout Guamá. In this regard, the exploitation of renewable energy sources (solar and hydro) is a viable option to which the country's leadership attaches high priority.
However, in Guaimaral (Ocujal del Turquino, Guamá), its 43 homes do not receive the service – although in the future 300-watt panels will be installed – and this happens in several communities in San Luis, one of the least electrified municipalities in the nation, and other territories in the province, "because at the moment it is very difficult to execute the large investments that would involve bringing the networks and systems to communities that, most of them are at great distances from the lines," the Chief Investment Officer stressed.
Whether in La Pilita (Contramaestre), where 356 people live, or in La Estrella (San Luis), with 25, and in each of the 2,592 families in Santiago – which make up 9,138 individuals – those four hours of daylight and the tangible and often anonymous efforts to ensure that the guarantee is constant are highly valued.
"All those houses save electricity, I tell my wife to do it too. I know when I will leave, but I don't know when I will return. It's a lot of walking and they even nicknamed me the old mountaineer," said Orlando Orive Silva from Kamaz, because the light of the mountains "can't be missing."
