Dozens of electrical circuits in the province of Matanzas have accumulated this Saturday over 60 consecutive hours without service, 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 telecenter TV Yumurí.
The MK41, MK69, MK73, and MK51 circuits in Jagüey Grande, along with the 5980 of the Bolondrón aqueduct, have been without power for almost 60 hours.
Circuit 4072 has been without electricity for 50 hours; the 5660 in Pedro Betancourt and Güira, and the 4485 in Jagüey Grande, have been without power for 45 hours. Los Arabos, Colón Este, México, and San José have also exceeded 45 hours without electricity.
Santa Marta, Boca de Camarioca, Perico, and Carlos Rojas have experienced 42 hours without service; Versalles, 43 hours; Colón, 41 hours; 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 shut down. “The idea is to prioritize the circuits that have been off for the longest while weather conditions allow,” he stated.
In Manuelito and Bolondrón, the problem is particularly serious: the circuits are triggered and can only be reset manually on-site, which requires dispatching crews from Pedro Betancourt.
"Manuelito and Bolondrón have had nearly 70 hours without power. The residents are quite aware because the electricity comes and goes immediately. We need to activate the emergency response vehicle from Pedro Betancourt and send it to the location," described Rodríguez Aspeitía.
Regarding the hospitals, the provincial director indicated that the available power plants rotate among the centers with the most accumulated blackout hours: "They should have two hours of service."
Rodríguez Aspeitía also warned that circuits that remain off for many hours may encounter faults and incidents when service is restored, urging each municipality to coordinate with its Basic Electrical Unit before any service reinstatement.
Governor Marieta Poey Zamora warned that the problem is recurring in several territories and circuits, including Manguito and Versalles, which are overwhelmed due to excess load.
The first secretary of the Party in Matanzas, Mario Sabines Lorenzo, urged to seek methods and ways to avoid further affecting the population.
Matanzas recorded outages of up to 96 consecutive hours in July and accumulated eight substations out of service and 63 damaged transformers simultaneously in June, amid a structural electrical crisis that the regime has not managed to reverse.
The national picture that illustrates the magnitude of the crisis is alarming. The Electric Union forecasted for this Saturday a supply of only 758 MW against a maximum demand of 2,800 MW, with a deficit of 2,042 MW and a projected impact of 2,072 MW during peak hours.
Several thermoelectric units are experiencing simultaneous failures: units 1 and 2 of the Santa Cruz thermoelectric power 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.
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