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The Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant announced that, alongside preparations for its exit from the National Electric System, its union office led the classification and collection of donations for those affected in eastern Cuba following Hurricane Melissa, in a statement that emphasizes the "solidarity of our people" as the country faces extended blackouts due to generation deficits.
According to the report, the first delivery —"we continue to receive contributions", they state— will head to the provincial CTC before reaching the affected families.
The announced shipment contains 52 lines grouped into 17 packages, including a crib, clothing and footwear for adults and children, toiletries, toys, and other accessories.
The company frames the gesture within an internal campaign to support the areas most affected by the floods and winds.
The donation exhibition takes place as the energy situation worsens across the country. Although more than 50% of the service has been restored in the east, the UNE reported that the national deficit continues to rise, with 24-hour outages and a peak impact of 1,244 MW on Thursday, along with 334 MW unavailable between Las Tunas and Guantánamo due to the effects of Melissa.
By Friday, the projected impact exceeded 1,400 MW, reflecting a system with precarious availability against a demand that hovers around 2,800 MW at peak times.
The technical report details outages due to breakdowns in blocks 5 and 6 of Nuevitas, block 2 of Felton, and block 6 of Renté, as well as maintenance in block 2 of Santa Cruz and block 4 of Cienfuegos.
To this situation are added technical limitations of 552 MW in the thermal park and the repeated shutdown of the Guiteras plant itself, which again left the system due to “unpostponable defects.” In distributed generation, more than 70 plants remain halted due to a lack of fuel, and 120 MW cannot operate because of a shortage of lubricants.
With a availability of 1,529 MW at 6:00 a.m. compared to a demand of 2,107 MW—589 MW already affected by that time—the UNE calculated 850 MW of interruptions by noon and estimated an availability of 1,495 MW against a demand of 2,830 MW for the evening, indicating a projected deficit of 1,335 MW and an impact of 1,405 MW if the assumptions regarding the entry of some motors and a block in Nuevitas were met.
The report warns that the result is a stagnation of the deficit at critical levels, despite the partial recovery of certain plants and the contribution of new solar parks.
In this context of structural fragility of the SEN, Guiteras' institutional communication emphasizes the provision of assistance from its workforce, while the system continues to struggle with unplanned outages, fuel and lubricant shortages, and a demand that far exceeds the available capacity.
The paradox between the message of solidarity and the ongoing blackouts defines the day, with promises of new, timely sources of generation that, for now, do not succeed in alleviating the crisis.
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