Mr Jaime Aristy Escuder has written and spread a simple, easy, but incorrect story about what happened – and is currently happening – at the Thermoelectric Power Plant of Punta Catalina. But he has failed to explain certain scandalous events, unknown to the general public and committed to the detriment of the country and in favor of Odebrecht during his tenure. Let’s see:
1. According to Mr. Aristy Escuder, “Mr. Almonte’s strategic goal is to discredit the Punta Catalina factory” and then sell it for the price of a dead cow. You have to be alive to see and hear things!
One of the first public spokespersons to deal with the Danilo Medina government’s intention to sell Punta Catalina in 2019 was the one who signed. This sale was promoted by Jaime Aristy himself, among others, and included the transfer of half of the plant for only $ 308.5 million to a private company, so that the private entity, with the guarantee of the plant itself, secured a loan from it. manage international banking. for $ 1,750 million and then signed a 30-year energy sale contract with a warranty from the Dominican state through the distribution companies. That sale was worse than selling a dead cow.
2. On the other hand, according to Mr. Aristy “the resignation of the operational superintendent, the maintenance inspector and the head of the air quality control system (AQCS) … has weakened the ability to make timely decisions to ensure the proper operation and maintenance of these units.”
The truth is that upon our arrival at the government, about 60 engineers worked in Punta Catalina, only three of whom have been disfellowshipped and replaced by other highly experienced engineers.
The Superintendent of Operations was replaced by the one serving second in management.
The maintenance inspector was replaced by engineer Lorenzo Familia, who had worked on the Punta Catalina project from 2013 to 2020 as the person responsible for the installation and supervisor of the turbo generators and auxiliary equipment, until its commercial launch.
The rest, 57 engineers trained for Punta Catalina, continue in the same place where the current plant manager, engineer Serafín Canario, found them.
When the plant was operated by the consortium in collaboration with the CDEEE, Unit 1 experienced serious malfunctions in the boiler and also in the AQCS system. In addition, in March 2020 – and also in April of the same year – Unit 2’s boiler suffered a major outage, requiring the plant to be shut down for more than a month.
These facts indicate that it is simplistic to blame current Punta Catalina officials for the factory’s disastrous performance.
What can be criticized is that during Jaime Aristy’s reign the provisional acceptance letter was delivered to every factory declaring it good and valid, despite revealing notable structural flaws. Those preliminary acceptances put the CDEEE against the wall and with almost no entitlement to any large-scale claims.
Another misconception of Mr. Aristy Escuder is to confirm that “(…) the CDEEE has so far unsuccessfully taken steps to eliminate the presence of sodium chloride in Unit 2’s boiler”. Nothing is false anymore. Since January 3, 2021, the Odebrecht consortium is responsible for the repair of boiler 2, not the CDEEE. Unit 2 is still under warranty until at least April 24, 2021.
Boiler capacity
For a long time, together with the Canary engineer, we wondered whether the actual capacity of the boilers is 376 MW gross, as stated and repeated by Jaime Aristy. The reasons for our concern are essentially two:
Firstly, because the maximum capacity of the boiler determines the thermal operating regime to which it will be exposed in normal operation. This means that if the wrong steam flow, pressure (etc.) is used, the boiler can suffer catastrophic damage. That means it is necessary to specify the actual capacity.
In the case of Punta Catalina, the contract was signed for a maximum capacity of 360 MW gross and 337.7 MW net. That capacity was later endorsed by manufacturer Babcock and Wilcox in a letter dated January 27, although surprisingly the same company tried to deny itself in another letter dated February 12, based on data from McHale Associates, which is not a boiler manufacturer. . .
The difference is that all the tests and documents show that the only way to get these plants up to 376 MW and keep them running continuously is with a superheated steam flow rate in the boiler that is much higher than specified by the manufacturer and with a power factor in the boiler. electric generator equal to 1 and not 0.85 as required. Under these conditions, in order to maintain 376 MW, the boilers would be forced to operate and suffer structural damage.
The second reason, or rather the real reason, is Appendix T of the EPC contract between CDEEE and Odebrecht.
That Annex stipulates that for every megawatt that exceeds the net value guaranteed in the contract, the CDEEE must pay an additional million dollars in compensation to Odebrecht. In other words, if, as Jaime puts it, the boiler has 376 gross MW and 347 MW net, the CDEEE would have to pay Odebrecht more than ten million dollars extra.
Unfortunately for the CDEEE, Jaime Aristy and Rubén Bichara agreed on January 10, 2020, as stipulated in an Anthology Agreement, to pay Odebrecht an additional $ 11 million, based on the aforementioned Annex T.
What was said in that official report is summarized in the following section:
“The Company acknowledges that on January 10, 2020, the fourth Activating Event Extra Amount Existing Disputes occurred, to the Company’s satisfaction, i.e. unit 2 has successfully reached a load equal to or greater than 376 MW (maximum load nominal) of generation for 2 hours continuously / uninterrupted, operating with three coal mills and diesel flares. The said Additional Amount of the Activating Event Existing Disputes will be billed in the amount of US $ 11,000,000.00, through an invoice to be issued on January 25, 2020, payment of which will be made within 30 days of the presentation of the corresponding invoice “.
After reading this paragraph, I don’t think there is any need to say more …