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Cuba recorded a maximum disruption of 1,333 MW at 8:10 PM, exceeding what was planned, while Havana accumulates five consecutive days this Friday without blackouts due to generation deficits, a disparity that reflects the deep inequality of the national electrical system.
The Electric Union attributed Thursday's worsening to "the failure of the Melenos Truck to arrive and the departure of the Fuel engines from Mariel," which extended interruptions for 17 hours and 49 minutes nationwide.
This Friday, at 06:00 hours, the system availability was 1,885 MW against a demand of 2,026 MW, with 260 MW already affected at that time and an estimated 650 MW of impact during the noon hours.
The outlook for the nighttime peak this Friday is equally bleak: the Electric Union predicts an availability of 1,940 MW against a demand of 3,100 MW, resulting in a deficit of 1,160 MW and a projected impact of 1,190 MW.
Active breakdowns include units 1 and 2 of the Ernesto Guevara De La Serna Thermoelectric Power Plant, unit 6 of the Nuevitas TPP, unit 2 of the Felton TPP, and units 3 and 5 of the Renté TPP, while other units remain under maintenance with 293 MW thermally limited.
As the only partial relief, the 54 photovoltaic solar parks generated 3,820 MWh this Thursday with a maximum capacity of 536 MW, although they only operate during daylight hours and lack storage capacity to cover nighttime peaks.
The contrast between Havana and the rest of the country has a concrete explanation: the crude oil donated by Russia, which arrived at the port of Matanzas on March 31 aboard the tanker Anatoly Kolodkin with 730,000 barrels, was refined at the Camilo Cienfuegos plant and its distribution began on April 17 at a rate of 800 tons of fuel oil daily, half of the 1,600 needed.
Díaz-Canel himself acknowledged in an interview with Opera Mundi that this shipment represents one third of what we need in a month and that "with this we can meet the needs for about 10 days." The Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, was more straightforward last Wednesday during the Mesa Redonda: "With just this ship, we have fuel until the end of this month."
Díaz-Canel also admitted that Cuba went 4 months without receiving a drop of fuel: "4 months, 4 months without receiving anything, working with our reserves and working from January to April."
While Havana enjoys a temporary relief, provinces like Holguín, Granma, and Santiago de Cuba report outages of up to 24 hours daily. In Moa, blackouts exceed 18 hours, and in Bartolomé Masó, Granma, residents describe entire days without electricity.
Citizen outrage is expressed on social media: "Why has the capital been free of blackouts for days while the provinces are the same or worse? Don’t we have the right to live better?" wrote a Cuban citizen in response to a post by Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos R. Fernández de Cossío, who celebrated the "relative relief," attributing it to the energy embargo.
A second Russian ship, the Universal, with 251,000 barrels of diesel is expected to arrive in the Caribbean on April 29, but Cuba needs eight fuel ships per month and from December 2025 to April 2026, it has only received one.
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