Three, two, one...

Litoral Thermal Power Plant, Carboneras: Preparations for blowing up the chimney.

Expectation, excitement, butterflies in the stomach, even vertigo; A host of sensations came and went that first day, as I got closer. I was watching the road, although it was inevitable that my eyes would wander from time to time to the highest point on the horizon in Carboneras.

I was driving my first car. I had been working for Endesa for eight years, moving between the diesel plant in Melilla and the headquarters in Madrid. Either because Melilla is still one of those friendly cities where you can walk practically everywhere or because Madrid has a dense public transport network, until that moment I had not needed to have my own vehicle.

There was more going on in my life at the time. Just a month earlier I got married and settled with my husband in the province of Almeria in what is still our home today, taking the first step in our life together. If they had told me this just a few months before, I would not have believed it. I had already made up my mind that after the honeymoon, we would continue to see each other only at weekends but instead, the planets had aligned to make it possible, although it was more than the planets, it was perseverance and the will of the people who were making the decisions. Gratitude was also one of the feelings that I felt during that period, and it endures today.

Protection against projections onto the brake shoes.

New job, new colleagues, in short, a new life that was linked to returning to my origins and being close to those I loved the most. I still had to pinch myself to be able to believe it, because I was on cloud nine, way beyond the 200 altitude.

That is how my life in Litoral began, just like for so many of my colleagues in the same scenario.

This is the case of Matías Carrillo, who saw how it was getting higher and higher. He was still away from home studying and every week when he returned home, he saw how it was getting higher. They said in the village that the higher it got, the more those who were working on the job charge, and when they finished, there was a feast with seafood. But anyone who wanted to eat prawns had to climb up to the top (it still makes me smile or even laugh when I hear it).

He started working at the Litoral Power Station shortly afterwards, and he has been involved in warehouse logistics since the very beginning. Even now, with the warehouse converted to service all the solar plants in Spain, he continues to observe the changes that have taken place in all this time from the same perspective, aware of the capacity for adaptation that we possess as human beings and what it means to be part of this adventure.

Iván Ballesteros and Marcos Pérez, now colleagues of Matías in the solar warehouse are also part of this journey. Both belong to the group of colleagues who, when the Litoral Power Station, after almost forty years in constant operation, began to spend more time idle than operational, transitioned to perform new functions in other work centres.

Interior view of the chimney shaft.

Ivan as a supervisor of solar plants in the western part of Andalusia. Looking back, the change turned out to be a very good experience, very positive, both professionally and personally; an opportunity to learn a new technology and of course, to apply all that knowledge acquired working in Litoral in the operation team and at the same time, providing support for maintenance (they called them the "supermen"). An important feature was being able to apply the safety and shutdown procedures to the new plants, which were a constant in daily life in Litoral.

At the next table, Marcos listens to his colleague and shares what he says. In his case, the memories go back to a few years ago, when he began working in the electrical maintenance department at the Power Plant and shortly afterwards he would become part of the instrumentation and control team. Later, after several years also being part of the operation team, he moved on like Ivan to another technology; in his case, hydraulics, in the control centre at the UPH Sur in Córdoba. Now he has returned, he enjoys the feeling of being able to take on new challenges and at the same time, how he has felt valued for the responsibility and involvement with which he has taken them on.

All of them are part of that renewable future to which we are all headed, with Soledad de Castro responsible for the Solar Warehouse; as brave as anyone can be. She set the milestone of being the first woman at Litoral, serving as an operational shift manager, although the appreciation and esteem we feel for her cannot be summarised as a single milestone but as a result of an impeccable professional career responsible for a number of departments: Laboratory, efficiency, etc.

We hope to see you soon. I am going to the "white house", which is what we call the construction building where I share offices with the engineering colleagues who are in charge of the dismantling. Final preparations. What they all have in common in their career is the accumulated experience of years building, assembling and/or operating electricity generation plants. There is no one better than them to undertake the task of "deconstruction". After all, who else but someone who has seen an installation grow from placing the first stone, the first screw, or the first cable, would put so much care and love into dismantling it?

Margarita Martínez Perales, Head of Sustainability Projects in the Southeast Zone.

Pedro Gonzalez Prieto, D&E Construction Supervisor.

Jose Martínez Galiano, former Head of O&M Operations at the power station.

Matías Carrillo, logistics (solar warehouse) inside the power station.

Iván Ballesteros, logistics (solar warehouse) inside the power station.

Marcos Pérez, logistics (solar warehouse) inside the power station.

Gianluca Tenca, at the head of the team as site manager, with a career forged in different countries and in the nuclear sector, always prioritises safety when taking any decision. The project to dismantle Litoral has given them an opportunity to be closer to their family. They always have in mind those people who at the beginning of their professional career imparted so much knowledge to them and they feel part of the path towards the energy transition along which we are all travelling. He is waiting for his colleagues who are making a final reconnaissance of the site to return. Like any good captain, he will be the last to abandon the ship.

The laughter of Paco García (Paquito, as Gianluca sometimes calls him) can be heard on the other side of the corridor, it is unmistakable. Born in the Canary Islands and a citizen of the world. How many places, how many power stations has he seen: Ceuta, Ibiza, Los Barrios, Melilla, Granadilla, Candelaria... Electrical assembly, mechanical assembly, starting up and much more. A few years ago, he was also in Litoral as part of the project for the adaptation of the Power Plant to the Industrial Emissions Directive (DEI Project). In all these places, he highlights the importance of the people he has met and dealt with, and from whom he has learned so much and acquired so many experiences.

Paco López, always concerned with safety, began his career in the company as Health and Safety Coordinator in the combined cycle power plants of San Roque (Cádiz), and also Cristóbal Colón (Huelva). At Litoral he was involved in the "life extension" and DEI project. It is inevitable for him to feel a certain melancholy when he remembers those times; People tend to have this "defect", although it is also what leads us to appreciate and value our present and future.

Preparations in the chimney fall zone.

Miguel Mateo has been involved in some of the Power Plant's most important projects, including the construction of the Group 1 desulphurisation plant, the "Transhipping", adaptation to the DEI, the batteries (BESS), precisely for this reason, although he has also participated in other projects for dismantling, he is unable to hide the affection he feels for Litoral. His professional life has been linked to Construction and Installation since the very beginning so he is accustomed to the organisational changes that the Engineering unit has faced. He is able to verbalise very well the mixed feelings that equate us to the people who work at Litoral, although always looking forward with optimism, with an eye on those projects that are yet to come.

The perspective of a younger person is provided by Javi Parra and Pedro González. Excitement. Javi has experience in another of the key aspects in the energy transition, namely the construction and starting up of photovoltaic plants. Getting involved in the Litoral dismantling project has given him an opportunity to learn about a technology and a piece of equipment that would normally be difficult to access. It is helping to keep some of this equipment in operation in other installations, within the framework of the "Second Life" project.

Pedro already had experience with the maintenance of other plants before starting the dismantling of Litoral which happened, as he says, almost by chance. Destiny led him "back home", where he started with a scholarship in Maintenance, shortly after qualifying as a mechanical engineer. But the ties that bind him to Litoral go back further. When I talk to him I cannot help thinking about his father, a very good colleague who is now in early retirement. I feel the same about Iván's father and I am reminded of so many others. It is strange how you become aware that you are getting old when you realise that you have shared your daily life with different generations. Today he came prepared with his dark safety glasses, in case the pent-up emotion comes to the fore. I should have remembered to bring mine too.

What I really knew was that I had to wear my uniform. In my current job I do not need to wear it regularly and what is more, there will be more people dressed casually, but I think that is what honours the day the most. The pride of belonging. Unlike in recent weeks, he dressed in grey, with an easterly wind rising and this also puts us in the same mood.

Loading explosives in the chimney stack.

I approach Jose Martinez; we are going to take our last photo. Half smile. We share it on WhatsApp with a few of our colleagues who, now we come to think about it, due to circumstances or protocol, could not be there or chose not to. We are left with a feeling of togetherness, of teamwork.

Jose cut his teeth at Litoral, professionally speaking, although he has always been linked to the company because of his father. Flashbacks that range from the gift he received as a child on Three Kings Day, on the "boat of light" (the one floating in Santa Cruz de Tenerife), to growing up in the town of As Pontes in Galicia.

He tells me that his wife is away, he felt like he just had to come. Many years ago this was the setting where they met; she was doing an internship at the modest Central Hospital and he was on shift. The pretext of a vaccine and the taste of a first coffee that is not forgotten. Now the smile is complete, broad.

So many stories that can revolve around the same place, it all depends on the people who experience and feel them. Some begin earlier, some overlap in time, intertwine and sometimes have a common end.

The scenario in which they take place changes over time, thus also influencing the experiences and feelings of those who are part of it.

It's time. Everything according to plan. Three, two, one...