In what could be more than $100 million in sales for foreign suppliers of fuel-oil generators to Cuba, Ecuador’s electricity minister signed an agreement under which Cuba will provide 110 megawatts of thermal power to the South American country, official media reported.

Two additional agreements, signed by Ecuadorean Electricity Minister Esteban Albornoz and Cuban Basic Industries Minister Tomás Benítez in Havana, cover  ”efficient ways for training in the electric sector” and cooperation in energy efficiency.

Neither Ecuador nor Cuba released any details.

Albornoz

The agreement is apparently an addition to a memorandum of understanding on energy cooperation signed by Ecuador and Cuba in 2009.  Under that agreement, Cuba has provided 390 mw of distributed energy via fuel-oil generators, contributes biogas and biomass technology, and manages a program to help Ecuadorean households substitute kerosene stoves with electric stoves. In return, Ecuador provides hydroelectric know-how to Cuba. Ecuador is already using Cuban help with training experts in energy management.

According to foreign suppliers, last year Cuban state company Energoimport and Equitatis S.A., an Ecuador-based subsidiary of Hyundai Heavy Industries, began deploying fuel-oil generators in the ALBA partner country. The project consisted of deployment of 390 mw of generators Hyundai had previously sold to Cuba at three sites. Deployment and maintenance of 200 mw at the Manta site is in the hands of Cuban state companies Energoimport and Unión Eléctrica (UNE); at two other sites Equitatis is in charge. The program, estimated at $450 million, is funded by the Ecuadorean government and coordinated by Corporación Eléctrica de Ecuador S.A. (CELEC).

Already deployed: Containerized generators at Manta, Ecuador

The 2009 agreement stipulated that Cuba would provide containerized generators it had already bought from Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries. Germany’s MAN B&W has secured contracts for an undisclosed number of new generators to the Ecuadorean program. Other suppliers that have sold generators to Cuba in the past include Germany’s MTU Friedrichshafen and Spain’s Guascor SA. 

Faced with an electricity crisis caused by aging thermoelectric plants, an obsolete grid and hurricane damages, Cuba in 2006 decided to decentralize part of its electric system by deploying hundreds of diesel and fuel-oil generators that run 24 hours a day, and thousands of backup generators that kick in during peak hours or emergencies. The decentralized approach — which is part of a larger program dubbed “Energy Revolution” — helped Cuba eliminate extended blackouts in a matter of months, at a relatively low cost, and made the system more resilient to hurricane damage.

In 2008, Cuba began exporting the system, and has since completed minor programs in Nicaragua and Haiti. The biggest program, in Venezuela, for 2,000 mw, was sold for billions of dollars.

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