Blackouts of more than 1,200 MW in Cuba but "the electricity bill doesn't go down."

The Electric Union (UNE), in its report on the situation of the National Electric System (SEN) for this October 11, 2024, warns that there will be blackouts of more than 1,200 MW due to a generation capacity deficit.

Despite this bleak outlook, Cubans are more upset about another issue. In the comments on the UNE statement on Facebook, a user expressed: "The most interesting thing about all this is that the electricity bill doesn't decrease, on the contrary, and the collection day never fails. They are always there on schedule."

Despite the prolonged power outages every day, the cost of the electricity bill does not decrease, which seems to show a contradiction. Services are affected, but costs for users do not reduce accordingly.

Blackouts on Thursday in Cuba

In the previous day, Cubans experienced power outages for 24 consecutive hours due to a lack of generation capacity, and this continued throughout the early hours of Friday.

The UNE reported that the maximum impact from this deficit reached 1,153 MW at 7:50 PM, coinciding with peak electricity consumption hours.

At 07:00 this morning, the availability of the SEN was 1,910 MW, while the demand had already reached 2,520 MW, resulting in a deficit of 713 MW. It is estimated that the impact will increase to 900 MW by noon.

Thermoelectric plants with units out of service this Friday

The situation worsens with the shutdown of several key generation units. The unit 8 of the Mariel Thermoelectric Power Plant (CTE) and unit 2 of the Felton CTE are out of service.

In addition, units 2 of the Santa Cruz thermoelectric plant and 5 of the Renté thermoelectric plant are under maintenance. In total, the limitations in thermal generation amount to 604 MW.

Distributed generation also suffers from serious problems, with 43 power plants out of service due to a lack of fuel, including the engines of the Patana de Melones and unit 6 of the CTE Nuevitas. This represents a total of 550 MW out of operation.

To mitigate the impact, the UNE plans to bring in the Patana de Melones engines with 165 MW and recover 100 MW from other distributed generation plants. However, this will not be enough to cover the deficit.

It is estimated that for today's peak hour, availability will be 2,175 MW while demand will reach 3,350 MW, leaving a deficit of 1,175 MW. If these conditions persist, the UNE predicts an impact of 1,245 MW during peak hours.

Cubans, once again, will have to prepare for long hours without electricity, in a situation that seems to have no end in the short term.