The energy crisis in Cuba continues to show signs of worsening each day.
This is confirmed by recent events, when the "unexpected shutdown" of units at Energas Boca de Jaruco raised the initial projection of 1,530 MW of blackouts to a reality of a maximum of 1,717 MW. The peak of blackouts was reached at 10:30 p.m. this Sunday.
La Unión Eléctrica (UNE), which had previously not acknowledged the event in Mayabeque on its social media, indicated in its report today that the impact was “greater than planned due to an unforeseen outage of units in Energas Boca de Jaruco caused by a trip on their outgoing lines.”
As usual, the 24-hour service was affected yesterday and remained disrupted throughout the early hours of today.
Current status of the SEN
The availability of the National Energy System (SEN) at 7:00 a.m. was 1,690 MW, while the demand was 2,920 MW, resulting in 1,252 MW affected by capacity deficit.
It is estimated that around noon the impact will be 1,300 MW, an extremely high figure.
The UNE indicated that currently a total of eight thermoelectric units are out of service: five due to failure and three for maintenance.
Units 6 of CTE Mariel, 3 of CTE Santa Cruz, 3 of CTE Cienfuegos, 2 of CTE Felton, and 6 of CTE Renté are out of service.
Unit 2 of the Santa Cruz CTE, Unit 4 of the Cienfuegos CTE, and Unit 5 of the Renté CTE are under maintenance.
There are 345 MW out of service due to thermal limitations, along with ongoing issues due to a lack of fuel.
In that concept, there are 49 distributed generation plants out of service, affecting 364 MW and 115 MW impacted by a lack of oil in distributed generation engines
The total impacted by this cause is 479 MW.
Forecast for peak hours
According to the UNE, it is estimated that during peak hours, unit 6 of the Mariel CTE will come online with 100 MW, along with the startup of unit 1 of Boca de Jaruco, as well as "the completion of the combined cycle of this same plant, contributing a total of 50 MW."
With this forecast, an availability of 1,840 MW is estimated for the peak, and a maximum demand of 3,450 MW, resulting in a deficit of 1,610 MW.
If the anticipated conditions persist, a peak impact of 1,680 MW is forecasted. That is the prediction; we will have to see what the actual outcome will be.
The eternal crisis to more
The last few hours have been critical in the national electricity landscape in Cuba following a breakdown at Energas, which, after other complications, has led to the shutdown of the Boca de Jaruco plant and increased blackouts nationwide.
“The unexpected shutdown of the Energas Boca de Jaruco unit triggers automatic firing in several circuits across the country. The causes of the shutdown are under investigation”, initially wrote on Facebook the government journalist Lázaro Manuel Alonso.
Two hours after that publication, which also sparked discontent among Cubans, the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MINEM) explained what had happened.
“A fault in one of Energas's output lines and the shutdown of the other two took the Boca de Jaruco plant offline, causing an increase in the disruption. Currently, four gas turbines are in operation, and the fifth will gradually come online, followed by the steam turbine”, stated a note published on the MINEM Facebook profile.
In several areas of the capital, which are less accustomed to the endless nighttime blackouts that the provinces have been suffering for years, protests involving the banging of pots and pans were reported in neighborhoods like El Vedado and Alamar.
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