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The Electric Company of Holguín announced this Friday a new system of rotating blackouts that prioritizes circuits with the longest time without service and promises only three hours of electricity when it's their turn.
During a press conference, the general director of the entity, Rubert Reynaldo González, explained that the new scheme abandons the previously established block system and will now prioritize those circuits that have accumulated the longest time without service.
According to a report from the official newspaper ¡Ahora!, the strategy aims to ensure at least three hours of electricity to the nearly 124 existing circuits in the region, always depending on the actual availability of energy in the National Electric System (SEN).
The mechanism stipulates that the circuits with the greatest disruptions will be prioritized on the reconnection list and, once they have received their service time, will move to the end of the order to allow others to access the supply as well.
The authorities acknowledged that the provincial electrical system faces a significant energy limitation. The director of the company himself admitted that the weakness of the SEN has prevented the planned rotations from being fulfilled, as some circuits remain connected for longer than scheduled while others stay off.
Despite the new design, users will not be able to know exactly when they will receive the service. Authorities indicated that the only commitment is that, when it is each circuit's turn, a minimum of three hours of electricity will be guaranteed.
The official further explained that the SEN is designed to operate in an interconnected manner between regions of the country, allowing for the compensation of energy deficits among territories. However, this also carries the risk that a disturbance could trigger larger cascading failures.
Amid this scenario, authorities indicated that during Thursday's proceedings, only a limited number of circuits remained operational, with just 18 functioning, which necessitated the suspension of the connection for others that were shut down.
The deterioration of the SEN has caused prolonged blackouts in various provinces of the country.
In Santiago de Cuba, for example, the local electricity company reported that some circuits can barely receive around two hours of service due to the severe generation deficit.
According to the daily report from the Electric Union (UNE), the country is facing a deficit that significantly exceeds the available generation capacity.
For the evening peak hours, the UNE forecasted a supply of 1,195 MW against an estimated maximum demand of 3,050 MW.
This results in a deficit of 1,855 MW and a projected impact of 1,885 MW, figures that suggest widespread blackouts across the nation if the expected conditions persist.
Amid this critical situation, an encouraging piece of news was the commissioning of the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant in Matanzas, whose disconnection on Wednesday due to a boiler malfunction caused another drop in the national electrical system, leaving a large part of the country without service.
These problems are compounded by the deterioration of thermal power plants, lack of maintenance, and fuel shortages, structural factors that keep a significant portion of distributed generation inactive.
In the midst of this energy crisis, Cuban journalist Yirmara Torres Hernández described prolonged blackouts as a form of "psychological torture" for the population.
In a Facebook post, she reported that in her area of Matanzas, power outages have lasted 32, 24, and even 26 consecutive hours, with only two or three hours of service. This situation forces families to rearrange their daily lives to cook, charge their phones, or perform basic tasks whenever electricity briefly returns.
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