The dramatic reality of up to seven thermal power units out of service due to breakdowns predicts a Saturday of blackouts in Cuba, interruptions that engineer Lázaro Guerra Hernández warned will be more intense in the central and eastern regions of the country, as the specialist says that most of the damaged units serve that area of the country.
Currently, the following units are out of service due to breakdowns: unit 2 of the CTE Santa Cruz, unit 4 of the CTE Cienfuegos, unit 5 of the CTE Nuevitas, units 1 and 2 of the CTE Felton, and units 5 and 6 of the CTE Renté.
The disheartening situation has caused the Facebook profile of Unión Eléctrica to be filled with photos of workers laboring in the outdated thermoelectric units that, presumably, had arrived at summer with the necessary prior maintenance, in order to avoid what is precisely becoming the usual nightmare: blackouts.
On the day yesterday, the electric service was affected from 8:31 a.m. due to a deficit in generation capacity.
The highest recorded impact was 610 MW at 8:50 p.m. on Friday, coinciding with peak consumption hours.
Subsequently, at 11:21 p.m., unit number 1 of the Felton Thermoelectric Power Plant (CTE) went offline due to an automatic problem, which kept the disruptions ongoing throughout the night.
At 7:00 a.m. today, the availability of the National Electric System (SEN) was 2,050 MW, compared to a demand of 2,330 MW, resulting in an impact of 350 MW.
It is estimated that by noon the impact could increase to 650 MW.
The limitations in thermal generation amount to 231 MW, while 68 distributed generation plants are out of service due to a lack of fuel, resulting in a total of 361 MW affected for this reason.
For today's peak hour, the entry into operation of unit 8 of the Mariel CTE is expected, which is in the process of starting up and will contribute 70 MW, as well as unit 5 of the Renté CTE with 50 MW, and the recovery of 60 MW that are offline due to a lack of fuel.
A availability of 2,230 MW is estimated against a projected maximum demand of 3,000 MW, which represents a deficit of 770 MW. If these conditions persist, an impact of up to 840 MW is forecasted during peak hours.
As usual, dozens of Cubans have erupted in outrage at the pathetic situation, and many are wondering what the projected maintenance, which promised a summer free of blackouts, was worth if there were sporadic breakdowns.
What do you think?
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