Blackouts are intensifying in Cuba in the middle of summer due to a lack of fuel and "unforeseen breakdowns."

The lack of diesel fuel combined with a couple of "unexpected" breakdowns doubled the forecast for blackouts on Thursday, reaching 1,041 MW during peak hours, according to Lázaro Guerra Hernández, general director of Electricity at the Ministry of Energy and Mines, in statements to Cuban television.

The worst part is that the forecast for blackouts does not improve heading into this Friday, as it again exceeds 1,000 MW, according to the executive and also the Electric Union (UNE) of Cuba in its daily report.

Yesterday, the service was affected due to a generation capacity deficit in the SEN from 5:25 a.m. and has continued throughout the early hours of today.

The maximum impact for the day was 1,041 MW at 9:00 p.m., coinciding with peak hours, which is higher than the 510 MW planned due to "the unexpected outage of unit 5 of the Diez de Octubre Thermoelectric Plant."

This breakdown is added to, according to the UNE report, "a demand higher than planned and low fuel recovery in distributed generation."

The availability of the SEN at 7:00 a.m. today was 2,300 MW, the demand was 2,440 MW, with 153 MW affected.

At noon, a maximum impact of 550 MW is expected.

Units 4 of Energas Varadero, 5 of CTE Diez de Octubre, 6 of CTE Rente, and 2 of CTE Felton are out of service due to malfunctions. Unit 1 of CTE Santa Cruz is under maintenance.

The limitations in thermal generation are 410 MW. There are 58 distributed generation plants out of service due to fuel, for a total of 448 MW affected by this concept.

It is estimated that during peak hours there will be an availability of 2,300 MW and a maximum demand of 3,250 MW, resulting in a deficit of 950 MW. Therefore, if the expected conditions persist, a shortfall of 1,020 MW is predicted during this time.

Lázaro Guerra Hernández described the current situation as "complex."

This Thursday there was a breakdown in a line in Matanzas that runs between the Guiteras Thermoelectric Plant and the Matanzas substation, which caused an increase in blackouts from Matanzas to the more eastern provinces.

The failure and the shutdown of a unit at the Diez de Octubre Thermal Power Plant, combined with the lack of fuel, which Guerra Hernández admitted has "hit hard."

"The issue of fuel has hit hard because we had a significant level of unavailability due to the Diesel fuel problem and distributed generation, and this also increased the impact," the executive admitted, adding that the situation should improve within about five days.