The Electric Union (UNE) and the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MINEM) announced on Wednesday that, once the winds of Hurricane Rafael reach 60 km/h, there will be a "voluntary disconnection" of the electrical circuits in the areas affected by the winds to prevent damage to infrastructure and protect human life.
"Once the winds of Hurricane Rafael reach 60 km/h, a controlled disconnection of the distribution circuits will be carried out to prevent accidents and failures in the electrical networks," stated MINEM in a post on X.
A similar statement was made by Lázaro Guerra Hernández, general director of Electricity at the mentioned ministry, in remarks to Cuban Television.
"As the winds increase and reach 60 km/h, we will proceed with a voluntary disconnection to prevent both damage to the infrastructure and harm to people," he said.
He emphasized that this will begin to happen as the winds increase in the western area to prevent that type of situation.
"We always do that whenever an event of this kind occurs to avoid damage to the infrastructure and also potential harm to people from the fall of any energized conductor. It is always important to proceed with the automatic disconnection of the circuits when winds reach 60 km/h," he concluded.
Despite the imminent approach of Hurricane Rafael through Cuban territory, the Electric Union forecasted outages on Wednesday amounting to 1,354 MW during nighttime, with that figure expected to be even higher, specifically 1,400 MW, during the daytime.
This means that, aside from the disruptions caused by the hurricane's impact, Cubans must prepare for power outages well in advance.
The report on the status of the National Electric System (SEN) for November 6, 2024, indicated that electricity service was disrupted for 24 hours yesterday due to a significant shortfall in generation capacity, a situation that has persisted until early this morning.
The highest impact from this deficit was recorded at 6:20 p.m., with 1,768 MW, although it did not coincide with peak hours.
According to the UNE, this level of impact exceeded expectations due to a higher-than-forecasted demand, the unexpected shutdown of unit 4 at the CTE Cienfuegos, and the lack of power recovery in the Melones system due to fuel issues.
In Guantánamo, 3 MW of damage was reported due to the passing of a hurricane.
At 7:00 a.m. today, the availability of the SEN was 1,500 MW, compared to a demand of 2,550 MW, resulting in a capacity deficit of 1,095 MW.
It is expected that during midday, the deficit impact will rise to 1,400 MW, particularly concentrated in the central-eastern region due to energy transfers to that area.
Regarding the generating units, unit 5 of the Mariel Power Plant, unit 5 of the Nuevitas Power Plant, unit 4 of the Cienfuegos Power Plant, unit 2 of the Felton Power Plant, and unit 3 of the Renté Power Plant are out of service.
In addition, unit 2 of the Santa Cruz power plant, unit 3 of the Cienfuegos power plant, unit 1 of the Felton power plant, and unit 5 of the Renté power plant are currently under maintenance.
The limitations in thermal generation reach a total of 335 MW.
A total of 78 distributed generation plants are out of service due to a lack of fuel, representing 429 MW offline; this is in addition to the truck in Santiago de Cuba, with a capacity of 64 MW, totaling 493 MW unavailable for this reason.
During peak hours, it is estimated that two engines will be brought in at the Melones site, contributing 36 MW, along with the recovery of 80 MW from distributed generation plants that are currently out of service due to a lack of fuel.
With this forecast, an availability of 1,616 MW is expected to meet a peak demand of 2,900 MW, resulting in a deficit of 1,284 MW.
However, changes to that situation are more than likely due to the imminent arrival of Hurricane Rafael to Cuban territory, which is expected to make landfall Wednesday afternoon.
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