Cuba's Electric Union (UNE) warned this Saturday that the country will face one of the darkest nights in its recent history, with an official forecast for the nighttime peak hours predicting a shortfall of 2,280 MW, with only 1,050 MW available against a projected maximum demand of 3,300 MW.
This means that the national electrical system will only be able to cover about 32% of what the country needs during peak consumption hours, leaving the vast majority of Cubans without electricity, confirmed the daily report shared by the entity.
On Friday, the situation did not improve, as the service was interrupted for 24 hours, and the disruption continued throughout the entire night.
The highest recorded impact was 2,279 MW at 21:10 hours, without even coinciding with the peak demand moment.
Several thermoelectric units remain out of service. The following units are damaged: Unit 6 of the Máximo Gómez Thermoelectric Plant in the Mariel Special Zone; Unit 4 of the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes Thermoelectric Plant in Cienfuegos; and Unit 2 of the Lidio Ramón Pérez Thermoelectric Plant in Felton, Holguín.
Unit 3 of the Ernesto Guevara De La Serna Thermoelectric Plant in Santa Cruz del Norte, Mayabeque; Units 5 and 6 of the Antonio Maceo Thermoelectric Plant in Renté, Santiago de Cuba; and Unit 5 of the Diez de Octubre Thermoelectric Plant in Nuevitas, Camagüey are currently under maintenance.
In addition to that situation, 106 distributed generation plants are halted due to a lack of fuel, along with the Patana de Regla, the Patana de Melones, the Central Fuel de Mariel, and the Central Fuel de Moa.
The 54 photovoltaic solar parks generated 4,410 MWh on Friday, with a peak capacity of 686 MW, but this energy only alleviates the deficit during daylight hours and does not resolve the collapse that occurs each night.
The forecast for this Saturday is set against a power crisis that has reached historic levels in recent weeks. On August 5, the largest deficit of the year was recorded: 2,411 MW, surpassing the previous record from July 29.
On August 2 and 3, the system experienced its sixth and seventh total collapses of the year, leaving Cuba completely in the dark on two occasions in less than 48 hours.
On Thursday, the ruler Miguel Díaz-Canel visited the Electric Company of Havana as part of a meeting where it was revealed that authorities from the electrical sector and the University of Havana plan to implement artificial intelligence to distribute power outages more equitably, without providing timelines or technical details.
The official presidential website reported that "in the not-too-distant future, when the designed programs are available, there will be greater equity in the distribution of electricity."
In parallel, China delivered a second batch of 5,000 photovoltaic systems intended for rural housing and essential services.
While unpromising signals have come from Moscow, as the Russian expert Igor Yushkov from the Financial University affiliated with the Russian government categorically ruled out immediate assistance from his country.
"Cuba is an insolvent actor. Let them first find a way to pay us. Then we can discuss the matter," declared Yushkov in statements reported by Gazeta.Ru, while noting that the Cuban energy system "is very deteriorated" and that "virtually no new generation capacity is being incorporated."
It is estimated that recovering the national energy grid would cost between 8 billion and 10 billion dollars, a figure that the Cuban government has no way to finance in the short term.
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