Cuban Electrical Union announces blackouts due to a deficit of up to 595 MW

The Electrical Union of Cuba (UNE) announced impacts on supply for this Wednesday due to a deficit in generation capacity that will reach 595 MW,causing blackouts throughout the country.

Although the UNE does not specify in detail the supply cuts by locality or their duration, the clients of the state company that monopolizes the electricity service already know that a deficit of 500 MW means a very high probability of suffering a prolonged blackout.

The day before, “the maximum impact of the day was 509 MW, at 11:00 p.m.,” indicated the UNE, recognizing that during this Tuesday “the service was affected due to a deficit from 4:01 p.m. to 2:37 a.m. today (10:37 a.m.).”

For this Wednesday, the company he runsAlfredo Lopez Valdes "estimates for peak hour an availability of 2,325 MW and a maximum demand of 2,850 MW, for a deficit of 525 MW, so an impact on the service of 595 MW is estimated during this time."

After the respite that came with the announcement of a normalized and uninterrupted serviceduring Mother's Day weekend in Cuba, the UNE once again predicted in itssocial networks massive power outages.

On SundayCUPET reported a breakdown at the Puerto Escondido gas plant, which affected the service and caused only “40% to be received in the manufactured gas production plants”, leaving partial and total effects among clients in the capital.

The outage of unit 3 of the CTE Santa Cruz and the difficulties in Puerto Escondido left a rapid increase in blackouts after the country had been reporting low levels of deficit in generation capacity for several days.

This Wednesday, “units 2, 3, 5 and 6 of Energas Jaruco are out of service due to a breakdown due to the breakdown that occurred in Puerto Escondido, which affects gas pumping.” In addition, due to breakdowns, unit 5 of the CTE Rente and unit 2 of the CTE Felton are out of service.

“Unit 6 of the Mariel CTE, the Guiteras CTE unit, unit 5 of the Nuevitas CTE and unit 6 of the Renté CTE are under maintenance. Limitations remain in thermal generation (237 MW), [and] in distributed generation, 958 MW are unavailable due to breakdown and 190 MW are in maintenance,” said the UNE.

In mid-April, the rulerMiguel Diaz-Canel acknowledged that his administrationIt was not clear how to get out of the serious energy crisis that hits the country. Referring to a supposed strategy to avoid blackouts in the summer, he assured that at this time there is a high level of thermoelectric plants in repair of breakdowns or maintenance, so that they enter more efficiently at that stage.