The energy chaos is growing in Cuba, where this Tuesday saw a record day with 1,641 MW, and where seven thermoelectric units remain out of service, either due to breakdowns or maintenance.
The forecast improves a bit for today, but the prediction for blackouts will still be around 1,500 MW during peak hours.
"At this hour, electrical service disruptions affect almost all provinces, except for the protected circuits. In Matanzas, they have also had to plan cuts in their vital circuits," admitted official journalist Lázaro Manuel Alonso on Facebook, at around 6:00 p.m.
Yesterday, the service was affected due to a deficit in generation capacity for 24 hours a day, and the service could not be restored in the early hours of today.
The maximum impact was 1,641 MW at 7:10 p.m., not coinciding with peak hours.
In its part on this October 16, the Electric Union (UNE) of Cuba acknowledged that the blackouts were greater than the 1,308 planned.
They argued that the disruptions were exacerbated by the "unexpected shutdown of unit 1 of the CTE Santa Cruz, the delayed recovery of the engines in the Melones truck that were out due to fuel issues, and a demand higher than anticipated."
The availability of the National Electroenergetic System (SEN) at 7:00 a.m. this Wednesday was 1,780 MW and the demand was 2,660 MW, with 908 MW affected by capacity deficit.
Such a situation will lead to estimated blackouts of around 1,100 MW by noon, an extremely high figure for daytime hours.
Currently, unit 1 of CTE Santa Cruz, unit 5 of CTE Nuevitas, unit 2 of CTE Felton, and unit 3 of CTE Renté are malfunctioning.
Units 2 of the Santa Cruz CTE, 4 of the Cienfuegos CTE, and 5 of the Renté CTE are under maintenance.
The limitations in thermal generation are 407 MW.
37 distributed generation plants are out of service due to fuel, including the Mariel barge, the CDE Mariel, and the Santiago de Cuba barge, totaling 464 MW, of which 222 MW are in distributed groups, 158 MW in the barges, and 84 MW in the CDE Mariel.
In the midst of the bleak outlook, for the peak hour today, the entry of unit 1 of the Santa Cruz CTE is estimated at 80 MW, the entry of unit 5 of the Nuevitas CTE at 75 MW, and unit 3 of the Renté CTE at 70 MW.
Based on this forecast - which includes the entry of three units that are currently out of service - the UNE estimates a peak availability of 2,005 MW and a maximum demand of 3,380 MW, resulting in a deficit of 1,375 MW.
If the predicted conditions are maintained, a demand of 1,445 MW is expected at night, that is, during the peak demand hours.
"This situation is even worse than the one that caused the social outbreak on July 11. And yet the people endure in silence, hungry, without light, without hope," stated a commentator on that sentiment.
"The biggest deficit in Cuba is the shame, which has come to an end," asserted a third party.
What do you think?
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