Another week of blackouts in Cuba begins due to a deficit exceeding 1,000 MW.

The week begins with few encouraging updates for Cubans regarding electricity supply, a situation that has become recurrent in recent months. This Monday, the National Electric Union (UNE) announced a generation deficit exceeding 1,000 megawatts (MW).

On Sunday, the power service began to be interrupted at 7:10 AM and was restored at 2:43 AM on Monday. However, disruptions resumed shortly thereafter, at 5:19 AM, indicating a persistent instability in the island's electrical system.

According to a note published by the entity on Facebook, the most significant impact due to generation deficit occurred at 7:20 PM, reaching a peak of 1,147 MW. Additionally, 7 MW were reported as affected in Guantánamo due to the passage of Hurricane Oscar, for which the country is still assessing the damage.

The situation became more complicated during that time due to the "unexpected outage" of unit 6 at the Mariel Thermal Power Plant (CTE), as noted in their report.

However, for this Monday, the situation remains unchanged. At 7:00 a.m., the availability of the National Electroenergy System (SEN) was 1,980 MW, while demand reached 2,200 MW, leaving a deficit of 235 MW. It is estimated that by noon, the deficit impact could increase to 550 MW.

The UNE reported that several units are out of service due to failures. These include unit 3 of the Santa Cruz Thermal Power Plant, as well as unit 3 of the Cienfuegos Thermal Power Plant and unit 2 of the Felton Thermal Power Plant. Additionally, unit 2 of the Santa Cruz Thermal Power Plant and unit 5 of the Renté Thermal Power Plant are undergoing maintenance.

The limitations in thermal generation reach 538 MW. Additionally, 64 distributed generation plants are out of service due to a lack of fuel, representing a total of 456 MW that are inactive. However, it is expected that around 80 MW from these affected plants will be recovered by peak hour.

In this context, a capacity of 2,060 MW is projected, while the estimated maximum demand is 3,050 MW, resulting in a deficit of 990 MW. If these conditions persist, the impact during peak hours could reach 1,060 MW, further complicating the electric supply.

This forecast reflects the inadequate and outdated quality of the service provided by UNE, particularly highlighted by the recent collapse of the SEN, which left much of the island in darkness.