Blackouts in Cuba: Energy crisis worsens daily life with cuts of up to 833 MW.

The Electric Union of Cuba (UNE) reported that the country continues to face serious problems in electricity generation, resulting in widespread blackouts since the early morning of August 17.

In the official statement, they indicated that the service was affected by a generation capacity deficit since 7:46 AM the previous day and has remained interrupted throughout Saturday night.

On August 16, the maximum impact on the service reached 833 MW at 9:00 PM, although it did not coincide with peak hours. This higher than planned outage was due to the unexpected shutdown of unit 2 at the Santa Cruz Thermal Power Plant and unit 3 at the Rente Thermal Power Plant.

The availability of the National Electric System (SEN) this Saturday started with 2,360 MW, while the demand reached 2,430 MW, with 92 MW affected by a generation capacity deficit.

The UNE estimates that in the coming hours the maximum impact could reach 350 MW due to the lack of capacity to meet demand.

Units 1 and 2 of the CTE Santa Cruz, unit 5 of the CTE Nuevitas, unit 3 of the CTE Rente, and unit 2 of the CTE Felton are out of service due to breakdowns, further limiting thermal generation by 449 MW.

It is also reported that 38 distributed generation plants are out of service due to a lack of fuel, which represents an additional impact of 229 MW.

For the peak hours of the day, the UNE anticipates the commissioning of unit 2 of the Santa Cruz CTE with a capacity of 60 MW, and the recovery of 50 MW in engines from distributed generation that are currently out of service due to fuel issues.

Still, a capacity of 2,470 MW is estimated against a maximum demand of 3,220 MW, which will result in a deficit of 750 MW and an impact of approximately 820 MW during peak consumption.

The regime promised to reduce power outages during the vacation months, but at the end of July, they stated that the lack of diesel fuel, along with a couple of "unforeseen" breakdowns, prevented them from maintaining the stability of the electrical service.

They do not keep their promises to the people, and as if that weren't enough, they have requested that individuals and state entities implement energy-saving measures to mitigate the blackouts.