Power plants purchased from Cuba are insufficient to solve energy crisis

Power plants purchased from Cuba are insufficient to solve energy crisis
Analyst says that they are expensive, old-fashioned and short-lived

Energy
Although the Venezuelan government recently appointed Cuban Minister
Ramiro Valdés as head of a commission to help the Venezuelan government
to solve the energy crisis, the presence of Cubans in the electrical
industry is not new.

The Energy Revolution Mission, a government program to replace millions
of incandescent light bulbs for energy-saving light bulbs and establish
power generation plants, is similar to programs implemented in Cuba.

The first agreements between Venezuela and Cuba to ensure the supply of
energy-saving light bulbs and small power plants manufactured in Cuba
were signed in 2007.

Miguel Lara, a former general manager of the Office of Operations of
Interconnected Systems (Opsis), says that these plants "were used in
Venezuela 50 years ago, before power utility Cadafe moved to build the
national electricity grid."

Lara said that the Cuban power plants "are short-lived and have high
operating costs because they burn a lot of gas oil and they are not part
of the national interconnected system."

Mariela León
EL UNIVERSAL

Power plants purchased from Cuba are insufficient to solve energy crisis
- Daily News - EL UNIVERSAL (4 February 2010)
http://english.eluniversal.com/2010/02/04/en_eco_art_power-plants-purchas_04A3391705.shtml