The electricity crisis in Cuba leaves another day in the dark, with a national generation deficit exceeding 1,800 megawatts and prolonged blackouts in almost all provinces, according to the official report from the Cuban Electric Union (UNE).
The state-owned company reported that the electrical service was affected for more than 20 hours on Wednesday due to a generation capacity deficit, without being fully restored by early Thursday morning. At 6:20 PM the previous day, the impact reached 1,824 MW, with a deficit greater than expected due to unexpected outages of units in the thermoelectric plants of Santa Cruz del Norte and Holguín.
In the eastern region, a failure reported on Wednesday night at the Holguín 220 kV substation caused the disconnection of the electrical system throughout the eastern part of the country, leaving the provinces of Granma, Santiago de Cuba, and Guantánamo without electricity, and partially affecting Holguín. The incident was associated with the shutdown of units 1 and 5 of the Felton and Renté thermoelectric plants, in addition to the motors in Moa.
The Electric Company of Havana also confirmed prolonged outages in the capital, with entire blocks off the grid and power cuts of up to 10 hours during the day. “If the availability conditions of the SEN do not improve, blocks and circuits are expected to be affected by Energy Contingency without a scheduled time,” the entity warned.
A sustained crisis
The current electrical situation follows what seemed to be a brief respite announced on Wednesday, when the UNE slightly reduced its blackout forecast to anticipate an impact of 1,540 MW compared to 1,850 MW the day before. However, the relief lasted only a few hours and was completely reversed after new breakdowns that caused a massive blackout in the east of the country, once again pushing the system to the brink of collapse.
The pattern of recent days confirms a sustained trend of failures and structural deficits in electricity generation, despite the partial reintegration of the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant, which is operating at low capacity.
The persistence of power outages coincides with the announcement of a special appearance by Miguel Díaz-Canel, scheduled for Thursday morning, which generated hundreds of reactions on social media. Many users questioned how they would be able to see the presidential message if a large part of the country was without electricity. “Those who have power will see it,” summed up one of the most shared comments.
The worsening of the energy situation occurs within a national context of economic crisis, fuel and food shortages, inflation, and increasing social unrest. The UNE has not provided timelines for the normalization of the service nor explained the technical causes of the recent outages.
Meanwhile, the population continues to face prolonged power outages amidst high temperatures with no signs of a solution on the horizon.
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