University Students to Support Energy Saving Control during Summer

Nueva Gerona.— A hundred university students from the special municipality of Isla de la Juventud, Cuba, will devote a week of their school holidays to contribute with the national strategy designed to save energy.

Odelexis Flores, head of the basic unit for the Rational Use of Energy in Nueva Gerona, recognized the importance of the participation of these young people, who “come to multiply the efforts made by energy inspectors in Isla de la Juventud and will also help to make workers understand better the energy saving measures taken by the territory.”

The university students —said Flores— will work in two main directions: pointing out potential dangers, violations and deficiencies in the state sector, which increase consumption; and holding talks about the importance of energy saving and energy carriers to maintain consumption under the plan assigned to the territory, which is of 310 MWh for July.

Among the most frequent violations detected in the state sector, specialists mention the overuse of air conditioners, which includes the lack of airtightness in facilities, as well as the existence of refrigeration equipment, lights and computers unnecessarily turn on.

Marcos Fernández, a student of Medicine, has already made his first recommendations when he visited the Drinks and Beverages Company in Nueva Gerona. “The documents are in order; however, energy saving measures remain on the computer. I suggested to them to put them in a mural and other public places where workers could see them,” he said.

“The students, in pairs, will also watch over the fulfilment of energy saving measures established for summer such as the readjustment of schedules for the extraction of products from the fridge-freezer and the transportation of production in hours other than the Electric Peak,” said Angélica María Santiesteban, president of the University Students Federation (FEU) in Isla de la Juventud.

The Isla de la Juventud is among the territories that are meeting the energy consumption plan assigned and up to July 12 it has saved 73 tons of oil.