Cuba woke up this Sunday engulfed in a new blackout in Cuba following the total disconnection of the National Electric Power System (SEN) that occurred yesterday Saturday at 6:38 PM local time, the second incident in less than a week.
The authorities warned that the recovery will be slow and gradual, and they are working on the creation of regional microsystems to gradually reconnect the country.
The collapse was caused by a cascade effect from the CTE Nuevitas, triggered by the failure of Unit No. 6 of the 10 de Octubre thermoelectric plant in Nuevitas, Camagüey, which took the other operating machines down with it.
It is the seventh national collapse of the SEN in approximately 18 months, in the context of the worst energy crisis the island has faced in decades.
This morning, Lázaro Guerra Hernández appeared on the television program Revista Buenos Días to report on the status of the recovery.
According to their statements, two microsystems are operating with greater stability: one in the west with Energás Boca de Jaruco and another in the center, with Energás Varadero, Céspedes 3, and the hydroelectric plant of Hanabanilla.
At that moment, unit 1 of Santa Cruz del Norte was in the process of being started, and the activation of block 4 of the CTE Céspedes would proceed. Additionally, it was announced that the CTE Antonio Guiteras would be energized shortly to initiate its start-up.
For his part, the Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, announced on his social media that Unit 1 of the Santa Cruz thermoelectric plant is now online, and that the system continued to strengthen, operating from Mariel Villa Clara.
In the provinces of Pinar del Río, Artemisa, and from Sancti Spíritus to Guantánamo, only small islands operate, providing electricity to basic services such as hospitals and water supply.
According to the authorities, in the morning, the process to strengthen the microsystems in the west and center needed to progress until they could be unified, after which the necessary actions would be taken to connect the east.
The situation is particularly critical in the capital: more than 90% of Havana remains without electricity following the blackout this Saturday. In the central part of the country, Villa Clara has only managed to restore a quarter of its power supply.
This new collapse occurs just days after the director of the Guiteras Thermoelectric Plant was promoted to lead the SEN amid a crisis, following the warnings from the deputy minister of the sector, who had previously admitted to the total collapse of distributed generation due to a lack of fuel.
Cuba endures its second nationwide blackout in a week, in a spiral of collapses reminiscent of the general blackout in October 2024, when the failure of the CTE Antonio Guiteras triggered a similar crisis that left the entire island in darkness for days.
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