Improving the sea defense of Central Termoeléctrica Antonio Guiteras

Abstract

The central Thermo Electrico Antonio Guiteras (CTE Antonio Guiteras) is a thermoelectric power plant located in the bay of Matanzas. In 2017, hurricane Irma passed the north coast of Cuba and destroyed the primary sea defense in front of the CTE, causing major damage to the plant. The power plant is renovated, and a new and improved sea defense is currently being constructed.
The goal of this report is to answer the following question: to what extend is the power plant protected during extreme weather conditions and what improvements are needed to ensure that the power plant can remain operational during these extreme weather conditions?
To determine what the hydrodynamic and meteorological effects are of a extreme weather event such as a tropical cyclone, a synthetic tropical cyclone is created. This synthetic hurricane must generate large significant waves in combination with a big storm surge, to have severe impact on the CTE. It must also have a significant probability of occurrence. To determine this normative synthetic hurricane, multiple synthetic hurricanes are simulated in Delft3D and XBeach and their corresponding return period is determined. As Irma significantly damaged the CTE, this hurricane is taken as the basis for all synthetic hurricane combinations. The hurricanes each vary from Irma in maximum wind velocities, forward speeds and their tracks.
To simulate the physics of hurricane Irma, a spiderweb grid is created at the locations of the hourly best track of Irma. This is then used in the Delft3D model as input for the pressure and wind fields of the hurricane. The output of the Delft3D model is validated with recorded data of observations stations in the Gulf of Mexico. Recorded water levels and wind speeds of buoys near Key West are used for validation. XBeach is used to simulate the nearshore physical processes. XBeach can more accurately predict wave propagation and includes higher order processes in its simulation. As input for the XBeach model, the output of the Delft3D model is used.
After running all the synthetic hurricanes in Delft3D, the five resulting normative hurricanes are run in XBeach. The synthetic hurricane that creates the largest significant wave heights at the project area is taken as a basis for the final design. This normative hurricane gives a maximum significant wave height of 8.8 m with a corresponding storm surge of 1.61 m at the location of the CTE.
With these values a research on the current defense wall is done. Ultimately for a part of the sea defense an adjustment on the existing defense wall is proposed. A second but lower vertical wall with a bigger bullnose is placed in front of the existing one. This creates a triangular shaped stilling basin, from which the water can flow out at the seaside of the wall. For the other part of the sea defense no adjustments on the wall are proposed but an improvement of the existing drainage capacity is proposed. The existing drainage channel, which lies behind this section, is widened and deepened. Additionally, a drainage wall is built around the powerplant, which diverts the overland flow caused by intense rainfall into the drainage channel.