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As electrical service begins to be restored in the eastern part of the country following the passage of Hurricane Melissa, the rest of Cuba is facing a worsening energy situation, with increasingly prolonged blackouts and a generation deficit that once again exceeds 1,400 MW.
The Unión Eléctrica (UNE) reported this Friday that, although more than 50% of the service has already been restored in the east of the country - after several days completely in the dark - the national deficit continues to increase.
While the eastern provinces are gradually regaining their connection to the National Electric System (SEN), those in the central and western regions are experiencing longer and more frequent outages, reflecting the structural fragility of the system.
According to the official report, on Thursday, the outages lasted 24 hours, with a maximum impact of 1,244 MW, due to the shutdown of unit 6 at the Diez de Octubre thermoelectric plant. This does not include another 334 MW affected from Las Tunas to Guantánamo due to the passage of Hurricane Melissa.
For this Friday, the forecast for the country rises to over 1,400 MW, despite the eastern region not yet being fully reintegrated into the grid, due to the shutdown of several thermoelectric units, a shortage of fuel, and the lack of lubricants for distributed generation.
The availability of the SEN at 6:00 am was 1529 MW and the demand was 2107 MW, with 589 MW affected by a capacity deficit. By noon, an impact of 850 MW is expected.
The 5 and 6 units of the Nuevitas Power Plant, the 2 unit of Felton, and the 6 unit of Antonio Maceo (Renté) are out of service due to breakdowns, and the 2 unit of Santa Cruz and the 4 unit of Cienfuegos are down for maintenance.
Additionally, the Guiteras of Matanzas has once again gone out of service due to "unavoidable defects."
In addition, more than 70 distributed generation plants remain shut down due to a lack of fuel, while another 120 MW cannot operate due to a shortage of lubricants.
Additionally, the technical limitations of 552 MW in the thermal system leave the island with an extremely precarious availability against a demand that exceeds 2,800 MW during peak hours.
During peak hours, it is estimated that 40 MW of engines that are not operational due to a lack of fuel will come online, along with unit 5 of the Nuevitas Thermoelectric Power Plant, contributing 55 MW.
The UNE forecasts a availability of 1495 MW and a maximum demand of 2830 MW, resulting in a deficit of 1335 MW. If the expected conditions persist, an impact of 1405 MW is anticipated.
In other words, the country's overall deficit remains stagnant at critical levels, practically the same as it has been reporting for months, with neither the recovery of some plants nor the introduction of new photovoltaic solar parks able to alleviate the crisis.
In the capital, according to the local Electric Company, the electrical service was affected for nearly 10 hours, reaching a maximum impact of 157 MW at 6:30 PM. The service was restored at 8:20 PM.
"It was not necessary to affect the planned blocks (2 and 5) at 10:00 pm. However, it was necessary to affect block 4 between 6:00 am and 7:00 am," specified the .
Behind the figures, the daily reality remains the same: an exhausted population cooking with candles or firewood, without water or refrigeration, and a government that only issues technical statements without providing concrete solutions.
The official discourse tries to present the partial restoration of service in the provinces most affected by Melissa as an achievement, but the truth is that the problems persist.
With an obsolete electrical system, inadequate maintenance, power plants barely functioning, and an almost complete dependence on imported oil, Cuba's energy crisis has turned into a perpetual cycle of collapses, patchwork fixes, and new breakdowns.
Meanwhile, citizens continue to bear the consequences of a management characterized by improvisation and a lack of real investments.
The government promises energy stability, hopeful about new renewable energy projects, but experience shows that such promises dissipate as quickly as light when night falls.
For now, neither the hurricane nor the partial repairs seem to have changed anything essential: Cuba remains plunged into darkness that is not dependent on the weather, but rather on years of inefficiency and state neglect.
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