The Minister of Energy blames Mipymes, self-employed workers, and air conditioners for the increase in electricity consumption in Cuba.

Cuba's Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, assured this Wednesday that Mipymes, self-employed workers, and the air conditioners that continuously enter Cuba by the thousands are behind the growth in electricity consumption on the Island. In his opinion, the increase in demand is experiencing an evolution "that we have never seen before." Additionally, his team has confirmed that when the blackout lasts more than three hours, consumption surges by 51% when the power returns.

According to the minister, in Cuba "a maintenance planning was carried out with the financial resources" available to have "outages of four hours from January to June 30," he stated, avoiding the term "blackouts." This was due, De la O Levy added, to the lack of "reserve generation plants," which, in his opinion, would have allowed maintenance to be performed without cutting off the power.

The forecast for maintenance tasks (to keep the plants alive, not to put them at 100%) was met, but as everyone knows in Cuba, the government did not comply with the planned four-hour power supply interruptions for the first semester of the year due to "significant issues with fuel," noted the minister, who defended "the rigorous analyses" that his department conducts when scheduling power cuts to avoid "disrupting the system." In any case, he emphasized that the blame for the poor condition of the plants lies with "the enemy," referring to the United States.

The worst, he added, was recorded in March, May "and some days in June," when power outages of up to 12 hours were reported in some provinces. And the problem, in his opinion, persists. "Today, it is very difficult for us to import crude oil for refining or already refined fuels," he emphasized without specifying that it is due to a lack of money. Additionally, the plants that are operational do not operate at 100% capacity and together generate 400 MW below their maximum output. This is due, he said, to years of exploitation and a lack of spare parts, among other limitations.

The minister assures that maintenance stopped on June 30, and in the first days of July, he perceived a "significant reduction in impacts." "Even the energy delivered to the system by all technologies increased by 10.6% compared to the previous year," but it did not grow as much as demand, and there were also "some failures in fuel issues," although not as much as in May.

To defend the promise made, the Minister of Energy emphasized that it was always stated that maintenance would minimize electricity supply cuts, but he now clarifies that they never said that blackouts would come to an end.

"The month of August was extremely tense," admitted Vicente de la O Levy, referring to the incessant interruptions in the electrical service. Above all, he acknowledged, "the first days of August were not as tough as the last ones." He claims that this was not due to the poor quality of the maintenance performed. What happened, according to his version, is that "other things" failed. For example, at the Guiteras thermoelectric plant, a "high-pressure hydraulic pump" failed, which needed to be purchased in Europe, "with the financial difficulties we have." Furthermore, that pump has to be installed by an expert who requested to change the oil for the entire thermoelectric plant and make other adjustments that the Cuban authorities cannot afford; instead, they opted to use homemade pumps made in Cuba by engineers from Cienfuegos.