Electricity has been restored in the capital and the west, but the country is facing a deficit of over 1,400 MW

The National Electric System (SEN) partially restored electrical service in Havana and several western provinces on Wednesday, following the massive blackout that affected that region of the country. However, Cuba continues to have a generation deficit exceeding 1,400 megawatts, reported Lázaro Guerra Hernández, general director of Electricity at the Ministry of Energy and Mines.

Guerra Hernández explained that the situation will remain tense, especially during the peak nighttime hours, due to the shutdown of the Lidio Ramón Pérez (Felton) thermoelectric plant.

According to the details provided, Felton went offline and will remain out of service for 24 to 36 hours, which will directly affect the generation-demand balance of the system.

Felton's relapse occurred just hours after his synchronization was reported, amid a backdrop of sustained vulnerability in the SEN, with recurrent failures and low availability.

The cited report reminds us that the Electric Union (UNE) had stated that Unit 1 of Felton was once again offline in "emergency free mode," shortly after reconnecting to the grid.

The partial restoration comes after a general blackout in the west that left provinces from Pinar del Río to Cienfuegos without power.

In the latest update mentioned, the UNE reported a supply of 1,389 MW against a demand of 3,329 MW, with estimated impacts of 1,972 MW due to capacity deficits, a gap that highlights the level of stress on the system and anticipates further blackouts.

The report also highlights that recently the unit 6 of Nuevitas (Diez de Octubre) and unit 3 of Antonio Maceo (Renté) had been synchronized, although the subsequent outage of Felton once again strained the situation.

Additionally, there are lingering effects from previous days: on Monday, according to the cited report, there were interruptions throughout the 24 hours, with a peak of 2,105 MW at 7:00 PM, and faults were reported in unit 2 of Felton and in unit 3 of Renté, along with multiple units under maintenance.

This is compounded by the impact of the fuel shortage on distributed generation: it was reported that 102 plants were shut down, with a total of 914 MW out of service, further limiting the system's response capacity.

In Havana, the Electric Company has also been warning about daily interruptions and changes in the schedule due to low availability.