Blackouts for this Friday in Cuba due to nearly 800 MW of deficit during peak hours.

A total of six units from four thermoelectric plants are out of the system due to malfunctions.

Familia cubana en medio de un apagón © CiberCuba
Cuban family in the midst of a blackoutPhoto © CiberCuba

The Electric Union (UNE) of Cuba announced blackouts for this Friday due to a deficit of almost 800 MW during peak hours, and 350 MW during the so-called medium demand period.

With the recent shutdown of the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric power plant, in addition to another five blocks that are not operating due to breakdowns, blackouts for long hours will persist in the coming days.

On Thursday, the service was affected due to a generation capacity deficit from 7:13 PM and was not restored until 1:19 AM. The maximum impact was 786 MW at 8:30 PM.

According to the report, during the peak hours, a availability of 2292 MW is estimated and a maximum demand of 3000 MW, resulting in a deficit of 708 MW, which predicts an impact of 778 MW.

Facebook Capture / Electric Union UNE

Six units from the CTE Santa Cruz, Guiteras, Felton, and Rente are out of service due to malfunctions.

Additionally, 51 distributed generation plants are not operating due to a lack of fuel, affecting a total of 190 MW.

As expected, this new outage of the Guiteras system, just two months after its last synchronization, has worsened the country's energy crisis.

The factory in Matanzas, the largest in the country, suffered a "problem" with the so-called oil control system, a set of equipment responsible for managing the flow, pressure, and temperature of the oil used in various processes, which can have crucial functions such as lubrication, cooling, and hydraulics.

Although initially experts predicted that the problem could be resolved in 24 hours, on Thursday Cuban authorities announced that seven days will be needed to continue the repair work.

The journalist from Matanzas, José Miguel Solís, pointed out that "the issue with the turbine valve regulation could not be resolved at the moment" and that "the truce is also necessary to do things properly."

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