Expert Jorge Piñón explains the massive blackout in Cuba: "The electrical system works like a chain of dominoes: one falls and they all fall."

The expert Jorge Piñón, researcher at the Texas Institute of Energy, dismisses the idea that the massive blackout that has left 80% of the Island in the dark, from Camagüey to Pinar del Río, is due to the Island having reached the much-feared "option zero."

"In other situations like this, it was a technical failure (Guiteras) that caused the system to collapse, like a chain of dominoes... One falls and they all fall. It's not due to a lack of fuel," he stated in remarks to CiberCuba.

According to Piñón, the use of heavy Cuban crude oil, which has a high content of sulfur and metals like vanadium, is causing significant corrosion impact on the components of the country's thermoelectric plants.

According to their analysis, although the Electric Union (UNE) has sufficient domestic crude oil to sustain base generation in thermal power plants, this fuel causes accelerated wear and tear on the facilities.

"The use of national crude oil is a vicious circle: they repair the damaged component, and a few months later it gets damaged again," he noted.

The energy expert clarified that in situations of electrical system failure, the cause can be a technical fault in a power plant, which triggers a chain reaction throughout the rest of the system. “Like a chain of dominoes: one falls and they all fall,” he explained, recalling what happened previously with the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric power plant.

In his opinion, the underlying issue with thermoelectric plants is not only technical but also one of resources. "The challenge with thermoelectric plants is money and time; only a long-term solution will suffice, not more 'band-aid' fixes," he stated.

Jorge Piñón also noted that the lack of diesel fuel directly affects distributed generation, specifically generators that depend on this fuel to produce electricity.

The general blackout on March 4 left nearly 80% of Cuba without electricity, affecting about 7 million people in at least 10 provinces, including Havana, following the unexpected shutdown of the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric power plant, the largest in the country.

The malfunction at that plant caused a partial disconnection of the National Electroenergetic System (SEN), which triggered a cascading failure in the electrical network. The regime claims that they are working to locate the fault and restore service, a process that could take up to 72 hours to complete.