Cuba set a new historical record for power outages this Wednesday. The Electric Union (UNE) predicted an impact of 2,380 MW during the peak nighttime hours.
The reported deficit is equivalent to leaving 74% of the island without electricity during peak demand, according to data processed by EFE.
This is the largest impact since energy statistics began to be published in 2022, surpassing the previous record set on July 8, when the deficit reached 2,341 MW and left nearly 73% of the country without power. On July 23, another peak was approached with 2,315 MW.
The informative note from UNE details that the expected generation capacity for peak hours is only 850 MW compared to a maximum demand of 3,200 MW. The previous day had already been devastating: the highest actual impact was 2,228 MW at 10:20 PM, affecting all provinces of the country.
The immediate cause of the new record is the simultaneous shutdown of several key thermoelectric units.
Félix Estrada Rodríguez, director of the National Cargo Office, explained on Canal Caribe that the situation worsened due to the failure of three essential units: Unit 1 of the thermal power plant Antonio Guiteras (Matanzas, ~200 MW), Unit 3 of the thermal power plant Carlos Manuel de Céspedes (Cienfuegos, ~158 MW), and Unit 6 of the thermal power plant Máximo Gómez (Mariel, ~90 MW), the latter of which was brought down by an electrical storm on Tuesday.
Regarding the Mariel unit, Estrada Rodríguez warned that "there was a problem with the turbine, and we need to wait for the machine to cool down, which takes between three to four days, before we can identify the fault and restore the machine to the system."
Unit 2 of the Lidio Ramón Pérez thermoelectric plant (Felton) and Unit 3 of the Antonio Maceo thermoelectric plant (Renté) are also out of service, while three other units are undergoing maintenance. In addition, 106 distributed generation plants are offline due to a lack of fuel.
The only partial relief comes from the 54 photovoltaic solar parks, which on Tuesday generated 4,927 MWh with a maximum output of 766 MW. This Wednesday, it is estimated that solar contributions will be between 700 and 750 MW during the hours of sunlight, a figure insufficient to offset the nighttime deficit.
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