Villa Clara is almost in total blackout due to a deficit in electricity generation

The Cuban province of Villa Clara is facing widespread power outages this Friday, with 162 out of 164 residential circuits inactive, local authorities reported.

The director of the Cargo Office in Villa Clara, Yadier Ruiz, reported in a note posted on Facebook by the local station CMHW that, at this time, 162 out of the 164 circuits in the residential sector of the province are off.

At 11:56 a.m. today, the electricity deficit in the region reached 150 MW during the midday peak, which made it impossible to adhere to the scheduled outages published in official media, he explained.

"Given such complex energy circumstances, it is not possible to rotate circuits as initially planned," stated Ruiz.

The comments on this announcement on social media came in quickly.

"There is, my dear, why are all the circuits turned off when Santo Domingo is covering the entire deficit for Villa Clara? It's a lack of humanity and respect to have an entire town in the dark for over 30 hours... I'm at a loss for words with you, honestly. I was part of the electrical team years ago, and I know you can take the hit, but you have to stop this." This was the response of an outraged internet user to the official post.

The Cuban energy crisis affects all provinces of the island. This Friday, the Havana Electric Company also announced additional emergency blackouts.

According to a post on Facebook, the outages affected customers in the capital associated with Blocks #1 and #2 between 9:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m., and will subsequently affect Block #4 from 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.

The statement urged the public to use electricity rationally in order to reduce consumption and avoid overloads on the networks, at a critical time when the generation deficit is expected to reach 1,595 MW during peak hours, which is more than half of the national demand.

The situation is complicated by several generating units being out of service due to breakdowns and a lack of fuel. Plants like CTE Mariel, CTE Santa Cruz, CTE Cienfuegos, and CTE Nuevitas remain inactive. The UNE anticipates a peak availability of only 1,675 MW against an estimated demand of 3,200 MW, resulting in a projected deficit of 1,525 MW.