For about three months now, the Vicente García Contingent from the Las Tunas Electric Company has been working in San Miguel del Padrón, Havana, to address the instability of the electricity service.

Las Tunas, Cuba.- The group of 34 workers consists of three crews of five or six linemen each, a vehicle with a four-man diagnostic team — dedicated to load testing and directing work where it is most needed— and two electrical service vehicles that respond to outages, perform load testing, or carry out other urgent tasks.

Leading the electricians is Omilton Rodríguez Rivas, the entity’s director of investments, who explained, “The work we are carrying out involves the municipality’s power grids at various voltage levels.”

The work includes grid maintenance and electrical upgrades to alleviate overloads in primary circuits and in the transformers that supply power to homes in each neighborhood.

Rodríguez Rivas elaborates: “So far, we have carried out 53 circuit splits with the installation of new transformers, three secondary-side gauge changes, nine capacity increases, 17 primary poles and eight secondary poles replaced, maintenance on 85 pole-mounted transformers, 97 load taps, and the balancing of ten primary circuits that were out of balance.”

That imbalance was no minor issue: “Under load, the circuit breakers would trip,” he notes. Added to this was the elimination of 30 hot spots detected by thermography—locations where the line’s temperature signaled an imminent failure. “It was corrected,” he states.

The report also includes the resolution of approximately 900 outages, maintenance on seven of the municipality’s 11 primary circuits, and the trimming of about 300 trees as part of those same tasks.

Rodríguez Rivas emphasizes that “For us, the safety and health of our workers comes first.” Each workday begins with the distribution of a safety checklist and a work order, always accompanied by phrases such as “safety comes first,” “take care of yourselves,” and “stay safe on the job because your families are waiting for you.”

“We haven’t had any accidents.” Incidents have occurred, he admits, but all have been analyzed during safety meetings.

Behind every line worker is a man far from home, and that’s taken care of as well. “We’re very attentive to the guys at the lodging when it comes to food. The food isn’t always the best. We’ve had some challenging situations. It’s no secret to anyone what we’re going through. But we’re watching out for their health, and if someone needs to go to the hospital, we take them.”

Morale, he says, remains high: “The team is doing well. They’re in good spirits and working happily.

“In San Miguel, we’ve had constant support in the neighborhoods from the district delegate, the People’s Council presidents, the municipal government leadership itself, and the municipal Party. They’ve been keeping track of the work we’re doing. They’re satisfied with what we’re contributing.

“At first, it was very challenging when we arrived in a neighborhood, due to the difficult situation with the power outages. But it must be said that we’ve never had any incidents, and we’re truly very grateful for the work we’re doing. There’s a widespread positive view in the municipality regarding the work of the electricians from Las Tunas here in San Miguel.”

Regarding their return, the director explained, “We don’t have a date yet for returning to our province. We’ll stay until the national leadership, the leadership of the Ministry of Energy and Mines, and the Electric Union deem it appropriate.

“The work being done in the capital is of great importance, since that’s where the country’s heaviest loads are concentrated.”