A massive blackout is affecting eastern Cuba this Wednesday following the shutdown of units 1 and 5 at the Felton and Renté thermoelectric plants, leaving the provinces of Holguín, Granma, Santiago de Cuba, and Guantánamo without electricity.
The Electric Union of Cuba (UNE) reported on its official Facebook page that unit 1 of the Lidio Ramón Pérez Thermoelectric Power Plant (Felton) in Holguín and unit 5 of the Antonio Maceo Thermoelectric Power Plant (Renté) in Santiago de Cuba are currently offline.
According to the state entity, the disconnection of both plants caused a total blackout in the eastern region of the country, leaving four provinces without electricity: Holguín, Granma, Santiago de Cuba, and Guantánamo.
The UNE did not specify the reasons for the departure of the units, nor the estimated time for the restoration of service.
The Electric Company of Holguín announced on its Telegram channel that "a fault in Holguín 220 Kv led to the outage of the Lidio Ramón Pérez (Felton) power plant, the Moa Fuel plant, and the Antonio Maceo Renté power plant, resulting in a partial disconnection from the National Electric System in the eastern part of the country. The causes are being verified."
The official journalist Lázaro Manuel Alonso later reported on Facebook that at "8:54 PM, there was a failure at the Holguín 220 kV substation, which caused the disconnection of the Electrical System in the eastern zone, partially leaving the province of Holguín without service and completely affecting the provinces of Granma, Santiago de Cuba, and Guantánamo."
He also mentioned that the disconnection caused the shutdown of the Felton CTE unit, the Moa motors, and units 3 and 5 of Renté.
"At this time, restoration protocols for the eastern region are being prepared to ensure its new connection to the SEN, the start-up of the aforementioned units, and the restoration of the load affected by the event," he emphasized.
It had been reported that this Wednesday the National Electrical System was in a critical situation, although with a slight decrease in the deficit compared to previous days.
According to the official report published on their social media, a capacity of 1,440 MW was forecasted for the peak nighttime hours against a demand of 2,950 MW, resulting in a deficit of 1,510 MW and an estimated impact of 1,540 MW.
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