The strong winds associated with Hurricane Rafael, which has gained significant intensity as it moves toward the western part of Cuba, caused the disconnection of the National Electric System (SEN) this Wednesday.
The Electric Union (UNE) reported on Facebook that "at 2:48 p.m., strong winds caused by the intense hurricane Rafael led to the disconnection of the National Electric System."
"Contingency protocols are being applied," stated the brief statement.
This Wednesday, the UNE announced that, once the winds from Hurricane Rafael reach 60 km/h, a "voluntary disconnection" of the electrical circuits in the areas affected by the winds would be carried out to prevent damage to infrastructure and protect people's lives.
"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," noted the MINEM in a post on X.
A similar statement was made by Lázaro Guerra Hernández, the general director of Electricity at the aforementioned ministry, in comments to Cuban Television.
"As the winds increase and reach 60 km/h, we will voluntarily disconnect to prevent both damage to infrastructure and harm to individuals," he said.
He emphasized that this will start happening as the winds increase in the western region to prevent that type of situation.
"We always do that whenever an event of this kind occurs to prevent damage to the infrastructure and also potential harm to people from a fallen energized conductor. It is always important to proceed with the automatic disconnection of the circuits when winds exceed 60 km/h," he concluded.
Following the collapse of General SEN last October, Vicente De La O Levy, Cuba's Minister of Energy and Mines, addressed comments regarding another potential blackout, asserting that the conditions are not conducive to a widespread power outage, although he did confirm that "the electrical system is fragile."
"The conditions are not such that the SEN would collapse; the system is weak, there is a significant generation deficit, particularly with fuel, but we are not at zero," the official wrote on the social media platform X.
However, Cuba recorded an electrical service disruption of 1,750 MW at 6:08 p.m. this Tuesday, the highest figure in recent months, due to a shortfall in generation capacity.
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