Dozens of electrical circuits in the province of Matanzas have accumulated over 60 consecutive hours without service this Saturday, with the towns of Manuelito and Bolondrón being the hardest hit, nearing 70 hours of continuous blackout, according to the official journalist Pedro Rizo Martínez, from the television center TV Yumurí.
The MK41, MK69, MK73, and MK51 circuits in Jagüey Grande, along with the 5980 from the Bolondrón aqueduct, have been without power for nearly 60 hours.
Circuit 4072 has accumulated 50 hours; Circuit 5660 from Pedro Betancourt and Güira, and Circuit 4485 from Jagüey Grande, have 45 hours. Los Arabos, Colón Este, México, and San José also exceed 45 hours without power.
Santa Marta, Boca de Camarioca, Perico, and Carlos Rojas have been without service for 42 hours; Versalles, 43; Colón, 41; and the Raw Materials circuit in the city of Matanzas, 39 hours. Limonar and Carbonera are nearing 40 hours.
The director of the provincial electric company, Alejandro Rodríguez Aspeitía, explained in a work meeting that the impact in the province exceeds 130 MW, which is the maximum that can be turned off. "The idea is to prioritize the circuits that have been turned off the longest as long as weather conditions allow," he stated.
In Manuelito and Bolondrón, the problem is particularly serious: the circuits are tripping, and they can only be reset manually on-site, which requires dispatching teams from Pedro Betancourt.
"Manuelito and Bolondrón have been without power for almost 70 hours. The people in the area notice it because the electricity comes and goes immediately. The guard car from Pedro Betancourt needs to be activated and sent to the location," Aspeitía described.
Regarding the hospitals, the provincial director indicated that the available generators rotate among the centers with the most accumulated hours of power outages: "They should have two hours of service."
The governor Marieta Poey Zamora warned that the problem recurs in several territories and circuits, including Manguito and Versalles, where it escalates due to overload.
The first secretary of the Party in Matanzas, Mario Sabines Lorenzo, directed the search for methods and ways to avoid further impacting the population.
The national picture that explains the magnitude of the crisis is equally alarming. The Electric Union anticipates a mere 758 MW of availability this Saturday against a maximum demand of 2,800 MW, resulting in a deficit of 2,042 MW and a projected impact of 2,072 MW during peak hours.
Several thermoelectric units are experiencing simultaneous outages: units 1 and 2 of the Santa Cruz Thermoelectric Plant, the unit from the Guiteras Thermoelectric Plant —which went out of service on October 14 due to a leak in the economizer, unit 2 of the Felton Thermoelectric Plant, and units 3 and 6 of the Renté Thermoelectric Plant. The limitations in thermal generation reach 394 MW.
This event is not an isolated incident for Matanzas. The province recorded power outages of up to 96 consecutive hours in July and faced eight substations out of service and 63 malfunctioning transformers at the same time in June, amidst a structural electric crisis that the regime has been unable to reverse.
Aspeitía also warned that circuits that remain off for many hours may experience failures and incidents when being restored, urging each municipality to coordinate with its Basic Electric Unit before any service reinstatement.
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