Miguel Díaz-Canel reacted to the total disconnection of the Cuban National Electric System (SEN), which occurred in the morning hours this Friday, after the Guiteras thermoelectric plant went out of service.
"From the country's leadership, we are giving absolute priority to the attention and solution of this highly sensitive energy contingency for the nation," wrote the leader.
"There will be no rest until his recovery," he added.
Immediately, dozens of Cubans reacted, asking him to resign from his position and for him and his government to hand over the country because the situation demands it.
"Get out, take what’s left of the country and leave at once!"; "Why don’t you leave? Take everything you’ve stolen and go; Take it all, but please leave Cuba in peace"; "Let the Cubans who know how to rebuild this country do it"; "You are a gang of thieves, but you are also the most inept that Cuba has ever produced," have been some comments.
"Does the government's direction contribute anything to the solution of any problem? It rather seems that in reality they are the cause of all the problems"; "Resign, incompetent"; "Get out of the Mercedes and leave power"; wrote others. "According to what they said last night, the UNE needed 300 million dollars in investment that were still not available... How much has been invested in hotels (that are empty) in the last two years? How much, damn...? Priority or no priority... don’t be a hypocrite!", exclaimed another outraged Cuban.
Shortly after 12 PM on this October 18 (local time), the Ministry of Energy and Mines announced on X that at 11:07 this morning, there was a total disconnection of the System, following the shutdown of the Antonio Guiteras thermal power plant.
The entity added that the Electric Union is working on the restoration of the Electrical System and did not provide any other details about what happened at the main and largest thermoelectric plant in the country, located in the province of Matanzas.
Lázaro Guerra Hernández, general director of Electricity at the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MINEM), appeared urgently on Cuban television to explain what is known so far.
The executive indicated that "the causes" for the shutdown of the Guiteras Thermal Power Plant, which happened shortly after 11 in the morning causing the massive blackout, are being investigated, and stated that for now "there is no defined time" for complete restoration.
Guerra Hernández explained that at this time each of the thermoelectric units is being reviewed for their gradual restoration.
The director of the UNE, Alfredo López, had already warned that both Felton and Guiteras would go out of service for maintenance at some point, but it would be a planned outage.
The report from the UNE on October 18 cited the unit 1 of the CTE Santa Cruz, unit 2 of the CTE Felton, and units 3 and 6 of the CTE Renté as damaged.
Unit 2 of the Santa Cruz Power Plant, Unit 4 of the Cienfuegos Power Plant, and Unit 5 of the Renté Power Plant are under maintenance.
The Cuban Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero Cruz, appeared on a troubled broadcast on Cuban radio and television on Thursday night alongside officials from the Ministry of Energy and Mines to report on the current energy crisis in the country.
Marrero Cruz made it clear that the situation is extremely critical and indicated that no short-term solution is expected. However, they stated that an improvement was anticipated starting this Friday after the unloading of a fuel ship.
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