Havana Electric Company announces emergency blackouts.

The Electric Company of Havana announced in an informational note published today that "due to an emergency," this Thursday there will be a service interruption in two blocks of the capital between 10 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon.

"Taking into account the current situation of the National Electric System for today, it is necessary to affect the service, due to an emergency, to the customers of the capital associated with Blocks #1 and #2, during the hours from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.," they published on Facebook.

The entity urged the population to "use electricity rationally in order to reduce consumption in the province, avoid overloads in the networks, and prevent service interruptions."

As of the closing of this note, the Electric Company has not published a blackout schedule for the coming days in Havana.

Although the synchronization of the National Electric System (SEN) was achieved on Tuesday after the massive blackout that left Cubans without power since Friday the 18th, Lázaro Guerra Hernández, general director of Electricity at the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MINEM), clarified in statements to television that this did not mean that blackouts would come to an end in Cuba.

"The normal operation regime has begun, which does not mean that there are no service disruptions. There is still a deficit in generation capacity, therefore, there will be interruptions in the service, but the system as such is already being operated under normal operating conditions," he said.

"At this moment, the impacts are equitable across the country. And the entire system is interconnected. Therefore, the impacts depend on the 'impact strategy' that was in place before the system failure occurred," he concluded.

Although the Cuban government has always tried not to affect Havana, a subject of recurring controversy on social media, the announcement made today by the Electric Company is revealing that the situation regarding fuel and generation is still serious, or they have changed their stance regarding blackouts in the capital, which is quite fair considering the severe blackouts that the other provinces have been experiencing for months.

The forecast for today at the national level

The Electric Union (UNE) reported in its update today that yesterday the electric service was affected for 24 hours and that during peak hours the maximum impact was 1,245 MW at 6:30 p.m.

In addition, 17 MW were reported affected in Guantánamo due to the passage of the hurricane.

At 7:00 a.m. today, the availability of the National Electric System (SEN) was 1,990 MW, while the demand reached 2,160 MW, resulting in a deficit of 220 MW.

By noon, the estimated impact from capacity deficit will be around 450 MW.

Currently, three thermoelectric units are out of service due to breakdowns: unit 8 of the CTE Mariel, unit 3 of the CTE Cienfuegos, and unit 2 of the CTE Felton.

Additionally, unit 2 of the Santa Cruz thermoelectric power plant and unit 5 of the Renté thermoelectric power plant are under maintenance. The limitations in thermal generation total 724 MW.

Regarding distributed generation, 24 plants are out of service due to fuel supply issues, which amounts to a loss of 135 MW.

For peak hours, the commissioning of unit 8 of the Mariel CTE is expected, which will contribute 70 MW. With these projections, it is estimated that the availability for peak hour will be 1990 MW, while the maximum demand could reach 3050 MW, resulting in a deficit of 990 MW.

If these conditions persist, an impact of up to 1060 MW is forecasted during peak demand hours.

The situation in Cuba is so critical that this Wednesday the government announced the extension, until Sunday, October 27, of the suspension of classes at all levels, as well as the suspension of non-essential work activities.