ASSOCIATION OF ENERGY ENGINEERS CUBA TRADE MISSION
June 3 - 12, 2016
In December 2014 the United States announced a move to re-establish diplomatic
relations with Cuba after more than half a century of isolation. The Association of
Energy Engineers elected to participate in an educational program as authorized by the
Office of Foreign Asset Controls (OFAC) which resulted in an opportunity to meet with
the Cuban people on both educational and cultural levels. It is Friday, June 3, 2016 and
17 travelers are gathering at the Pullman Hotel in Miami to be briefed on the morning
departure for the AEE’s Trade Mission to Cuba.
This was an exciting opportunity to meet and interface with the broad Energy Industry
representatives and discover what has been and what is contemplated by the Cuban
government. Particularly in the area of additional energy needs required to handle the
influx of US tourists.
Executive Director, Al Thumann, his wife Adriana, Past President Carl and his wife
Marianne Salas, Jerry and Elaine Webb, Past President Mary Anne Lauderdale,
Secretary-Elect Lori Moen, Dr. Mary McKinney, Gonzalo Manchego and Brent Rondon
from Duquesne University, Jerry Saulter, Ignacio Rodriguez, Cappy Kidd, Executive
Assistant Angie Quarles and Past President and Tour Leader Tim Janos with his wife
Donna comprised the AEE Group.
On Saturday morning we arrived in Cuba. Despite Havana airport needing significant
overhaul to reach customary international travel standards appearances, immigration is
relatively simple and efficient. It was interesting to note the immigration agent asked if
we wanted our passports stamped. An obvious throwback to when Americans were not
allowed in Cuba.
We were soon met by two guides Nelson Ramos and Julie Gilders. They would be with
us for the duration of the trip. To say they were informative and amazing would be a
gross understatement. They were terrific!
Fabled classic cars of Cuba are evident everywhere. Many having been converted into
Taxis. As we traveled throughout Havana, these classic cars were ubiquitous and
provided many photo opportunities.
Our 1st stop was the iconic Hotel Nacional which opened in1930. Cuba was a prime
travel destination during this time. As we enjoyed Mojitos and surveyed all the
photographs, we couldn’t help but comment on the familiar names: Lucky Luciano, Al
Capone, etc. and a wide variety of celebrities such as Frank Sinatra who appeared over
the years to entertain at this very facility.
After enjoying a traditional Cuban lunch at La Barraca Restaurant located on the hotel
grounds we toured the Cold War bunkers which are located at the shoreline. This area
provided the Cuban military opportunity to observe potential invasions from the US. The
bunkers displayed photographs and maps illustrating the process of the ill-fated US
invasion on Cuba.
The Parque Central Hotel would be our base of operations for the next 8 days. We
were pleasantly surprised at the hotel’s accommodations as well as the service. Checkin was as easy as any US hotel and they were prepared for the larger group.
Shortly after our arrival at the hotel, we attended a meeting with a professor at the
University of Havana and Senior Scholar specializing in International Trade in Economic
Development. Dr. Jorge Sanchez is a former visiting scholar at Harvard University
where he examined the impact of US Cuba trade. Our meeting provided essential
background information regarding the embargo. Particularly the impacts and changes
that would be forthcoming as Cuba entered the global markets as a result of the
ultimate lifting of the US imposed trade embargo.
Sunday morning we enjoyed a walking tour of old Havana and to appreciate some of
the remarkable European inspired architecture present from Cuba’s heyday. It is truly
sad to see how much decay and disrepair has affected the entire Country. The level of
decay is such that we were informed by our guides it is not unusual to have couple
simply collapse each day. They were certainly magnificent buildings at one time.
Hopefully some will be restored and preserved as Cuba enters a more robust economic
phase.
After the walking tour we visited the Cuban Art Center where we were able to view an
artistic impression of the various phases of Cuba over the last 50 years.
Our tour of the Presidential Palace, which is now a museum, illustrated the history of
the Cuban political development and provided us with a fascinating perspective of
Cuba’s view on the relationship with United States. The museum contains many articles
and photographs of both Fidel Castro and Che Guevara during the years of the
revolution.
It’s Monday and we are off to a meeting with the Cuban Renewable Energy Research Center
along with Center and the Ministry of Science Technology and the Environment (CITMA).
Manuel Alvarez, the Director General of CubaEnergia, hosted the meeting in their modest
building. Manuel does not speak English however, four of the participants, Adriana, Ignacio,
Brent and Gonzalo all spoke fluent Spanish as well as our Guide Nelson. This was incredibly
valuable throughout our tours.
The information we gleaned at this meeting was incredibly interesting and valuable. During our
meeting we lost power on several occasions. Currently Cuba has about 5000 MW of peak load
with anticipated GDP growth of 4%. The government is currently evaluating the impact of tourist
consumption on the electrical generation already taxed to maximum capacity. Interestingly
enough most of the kilowatts, about 50%, goes to residential use with a spike in consumption
between 6pm and 10pm in the evening.
There is substantial interest in Renewable Energy on this sunny Caribbean Island of course,
especially where there are “off-grid” applications. The sugar mills in Cuba are a fascinating
energy story. After sugarcane is harvested the leftover material is called “bagasse” and can be
used as a feedstock for boilers. They also have a plant called wicked weed which is invasive
and is likewise feedstock. Consequently all the sugar mills are really standalone energy plants,
not only do they produce enough energy to service all their needs by the burning of biomass but
they generate enough electricity to actually output to the grid. While there are less sugar mills
then there once were in this country there are currently 59 of these running and the excess
energy is welcome in the Cuban grid.
Fortunately there were a few stops along our way each day to stop and enjoy the
people, music, cuisine and culture.
And yes, before you ask, we did stop at a Cuban tobacco farm to check out the Cuban
cigars and found out they start the craft very early in life….
It didn’t take us long to discover that the scheduling of meetings in Cuba is a moving
target. Since all of our meetings were arranged by various government organizations,
the printed schedule was more of a guideline than a fact. On Tuesday, we ventured out
into the countryside. Several hours from Havana there is a beautiful organic ecological
farm, Finca Ecologica. What’s impressive about Cuba is the fertile land available for
growing everything from fruits and vegetables, tobacco and sugar. The relative
constraints that exist based on the current governmental structure in terms of being
efficient with this land is hard to believe, and sadly just too long to repeat here.
On Wednesday we meet with Prof. Paul Rodriguez at the hotel for a fascinating
roundtable discussion on US Cuban relations. Several hours of slides and discussions
revealed the Cuban perspective on the history between our countries. It’s inappropriate
to get very political in this report but I encourage you to find any of the travelers and
satisfy your curiosity as to where things are at this point in Cuba.
In any country it is fairly difficult to go from a highly socialistic government to a free
enterprise economic system that is encouraging growth. This will be a difficult task for
Cuba. Outside the city of Havana potable water is not provided every day. This is a god
example regarding the state of things. Each home must have a storage tank and a
pump. On the days water is provided from the central sources, they fill their cisterns for
use over the next several days until their part of the country receives water again.
Tends to really make you appreciate how things work in the US.
Late Wednesday afternoon we had the opportunity to meet with Dr. Luiz Berriz of
Cuba Solar. Dr. Berriz runs this nongovernment organization which was founded in
1994 to promote renewable energy. His research is actually performed in his own home
and his rooftop has an impressive array of solar equipment. Facts he shared relate to
the Medical Clinics that are scattered throughout rural countryside of Cuba. As you may
imagine many of these clinics are without any grid supplied electricity. A clever solution
was instituted in which each of these clinics were outfitted with sufficient solar panels to
provide basic electricity and lighting needs so that the local residents could have some
access to basic medical support. In order to encourage the use of these clinics, each
one was also equipped with a satellite dish and a television to turn the clinic into a
gathering place for the local residents.
What a simple and great idea to be able to provide medical support for the folks located
in the rural areas. To illustrate some of the challenges facing the Cuban population,
consider the fact that all of these clinics had batteries to store electricity as you would
imagine in any PV system. Shortages are everywhere in Cuba and one of the situations
that arises in these clinics is that your tractor needs a battery in order to provide for
planting crops and there is no battery available anyplace else, so the storage batteries
from the PV systems wind up being reallocated to the tractor.
Our guide, Nelson, mentioned if you live in Cuba it’s favorable to own a stick shift
automobile because if you need a replacement battery and there’s none available it’s
almost impossible to push start an automatic transmission but no problem to push start
a stick shift. It’s difficult to imagine the Cuban economy keeping up with enough
supplies and equipment to adequately support the anticipated influx of tourists under
these types of conditions. Nelson, by the way, owns a 30 year old Russian “Gala”
automobile that is a visual wreck as Carl Salas described it. Nelson says it is still worth
$10,000! (Our $ and the CUC are on a par).
Having adequate supplies of anything in Cuba is challenging. After support from Russia
and Venezuela was removed, the economy became very difficult. Government actually
sent employees to your home to replace your incandescent light bulbs with CFL light
bulbs and literally smashed the old incandescent bulbs in front of you to be sure they
could not be reused as the grid was unable to supply sufficient capacity. Rumor has
there’s a black market for old incandescent bulbs.
A fascinating PowerPoint presentation showed the harvest of old refrigerators and the
graveyard where they were all ultimately deposited. In an additional move to
compensate for lack of electrical generation capacity, old inefficient refrigerators were
collected and the populace was supplied with new relatively efficient refrigeration.
On Thursday our group enjoyed a spirited meeting with Dr. Rena Perez who was
formally with the Ministry of Agriculture and is now an adviser to the Ministry of Sugar.
Dr. Perez’s American husband passed away a short time ago and she has a daughter
that lives in Miami. Her perspective on the relationships between Cuba and the United
States can best be described as “Cuban” and very narrow negative in terms of the
problems caused by the embargo that has been imposed. She shared some things that
we think are fairly interesting. For example after the revolution and post support for
Cuba from Russia and subsequently Chavez, the economic conditions in Cuba
deteriorated so badly that the average Cuban lost 20 to 30 pounds of body weight. To
this day Cubans still have ration cards for food which restrict what they get and where
they must acquire it. There is a certain level of distain for the US. The embargo has
limited Cuba’s ability to have an effective economy, especially when coupled with illconceived and poorly executed Cuban governmental policies.
Some interesting facts to share about how things work in Cuba. The citizens are able to
own certain property, in fact many people own apartments which we would probably call
condos. However, the government owns the land and the citizen really owns the space
inside his unit. Think about this, if you own the unit on the top floor and the roof leaks it’s
your problem. Since leaking in your unit you’re really stuck fixing it and you now need to
go down and negotiate with your neighbors for some contributions to fix the leak in your
apartment.
Clearly there are some holes in the system and the negotiations have to be fascinating.
It seems hard to believe but one evening at dinner we were overlooking a high-rise
condominium complex near the shoreline that contains various units 1, 2 and 3
bedrooms. The swimming pool for the unit was visible in a state of total disrepair
obviously not having been used in years. Why? Because nobody owns the swimming
pool and there are no provisions for any common maintenance so the pool sits there in
total disrepair in a climate desperately appropriate for a swimming pool.
On a positive note the government has encouraged private restaurants called Paladars.
These were actually created to avoid the underground market in the restaurant business
and they are still tightly government controlled but they do provide a pretty solid dining
experience with good food and generally upscale appointments. There is hope for free
enterprise.
Then suddenly it was time to say farewell to Havana, but not without a visit to the
Tropicana, which might me the only continuously operating show in Cuba, as it dates
back to the 1930’s of Cuba’s heydays.
On Friday our group traveled to Jibacoa which is a beach town in an incredibly beautiful
locale for a day of rest before returning to the United States. This resort is now run by
Memories as an all-inclusive resort and has the potential to be a great tourist attraction.
It’s going to need some work, as most of Cuba will, as it transitions from a highly
structured inflexible government controlled operation to one that is driven based on
serving the customer.
The Farewell Dinner at Memories Jibaco was great fun as we recalled the adventures of
the trip and shared the learning experiences.
The energy situation in Cuba is so ripe with opportunity that is truly amazing. The solar
potential alone is something in the neighborhood of 1,000,000 m² of PV. The sugar mills
provide a fascinating example of self-contained energy islands that actually produce
more than they use and export the balance to the grid.
Our visit to Cuba, before the anticipated invasion of US tourists, was very special and
very informative. Massive opportunity awaits but it will be a slow evolving process.
There is an enormous opportunity in Cuba although in our opinion, it will be sometime
until the opportunity comes to full bloom. It seems that the existing form of government
regulations will probably continue, even throughout the transition out of the embargo by
the United States, and at least according to our guides, two biological events need to
occur before the government loosens up enough to get out of its own way.
The Association of Energy Engineers is looking forward to the opportunity to work with
Cuba to expand the knowledge base and to assist in the development of the energy
industry and training opportunities. In conjunction with Tetra Tech, the AEE is
sponsoring Manuel Alvarez to attend the World Energy Engineering Congress in
Washington DC in September. One of our travelers, Ignacio Rodriquez, was actually
born in Cuba and left at the time of the revolution. This was his 1st trip back and since
Ignacio works for Tetra Tech, he has been instrumental in working with AEE and you
CubaEnergia to allow Mr. Alvarez to visit the US and the World Energy Engineering
Congress.
What works? Cell phones now work – Verizon, Sprint, ATT are all functional. The
Internet works in Hotel Lobbies and costs about $4.00 for one hour. The US Dollar is
actually accepted – sometimes encouraged – most everywhere despite the claims that
everything needed to be paid in Cuban CUC’s. The official exchange rate was about
93% but there were better deals to be had. The busses and roads were very functional
and the airport is not terrible.
What does not work? Credit Cards! If you have a US based Credit card it is useless at
this time, although promises have been made that this will evolve soon. Take lots of
cash if you are going soon. No internet in your hotel rooms!