Related videos:
The Electric Company of Sancti Spíritus raised alarms on Tuesday by reporting that unauthorized private businesses are transferring or connecting to prioritized circuits in the province, and it held them responsible for causing overloads and damage to transformers in a network that is already operating at the limit of its capacity.
According to reported by the state media Radio Sancti Spíritus, Odeibi Valdés Alba, the technical director of the entity, explained that self-employed workers operating without declaring their activity increase energy demand in areas designed to support specific residential loads, which accelerates the deterioration of distribution equipment.
"The electricity service you are receiving is for your home; it is a residential electricity service. If we, our inspectors, or our workers detect that you are violating this, we will report it and cut off your electricity service. In Sancti Spíritus, we have detected undeclared self-employment activities, and today transformers have been burned," warned Valdés Alba.
The official pointed out that the problem is not limited to the provincial capital: "Just like in Cabaiguán, we have also identified undisclosed services even to the ONAT that have affected transformers, and at the appropriate times, analyses and corrections have been made in these activities."
The measures implemented so far include fines, disconnection of electricity service to the offenders, and direct discussions with those involved.
The prioritized circuits are segments of the network that receive supply more frequently due to hosting essential services: hospitals, food industries, oil wells, and water pumping systems.
The connection of undeclared private businesses to them in order to take advantage of that extended supply time constitutes a double violation: electrical and tax-related.
However, it is also a means of survival for those who depend on their ventures.
Valdés Alba summarized the seriousness of the situation with a direct call to action: "What we need to urge everyone to do is to take care of the transformers we have in the network, because the country is really having a hard time with replacements. And for us, despite having excellent staff in the province, it is very difficult due to objective reasons to achieve the replacement of all the damaged transformers."
The background worsens the situation. The shortage of transformers throughout Cuba is a critical structural issue: the Electric Union acknowledged on June 7 that there is no physical availability of spare parts across the country, and there are only three specialized repair workshops located in Havana, Villa Clara, and Manzanillo.
In Holguín, 25 damaged transformers were reported against just six replacements received; in Guantánamo, eight malfunctioning units with no possibility of replacement.
In Sancti Spíritus, the crisis is particularly severe: entire neighborhoods have been without electricity for 15 to 20 consecutive days during June, and the provincial Electric Company attributed the collapse of 19 kV transformers to the load peaks generated by reconnecting equipment after prolonged interruptions.
The phenomenon of illegal connections to prioritized circuits was also detected in Guantánamo in June, where residents sought to access electricity by exploiting these network segments.
Filed under: