The province of Granma was completely isolated from the National Electric System (SEN) this Friday following a fault in the 110 kV transmission line that connects it to Santiago de Cuba, according to the Electric Company of Granma informing its customers.
The failure caused a total and instant disconnection of the province from the national electrical system. The Provincial Load Dispatch is working to restore the interconnection, although without a set timeline: reconnection can only be executed "when the technical conditions are met," according to the official statement.
In the meantime, the essential services in the area —hospitals, water pumping stations, and other vital centers— are operating with their emergency generators to maintain their functions.
The incident occurs at one of the worst times for the Cuban electrical system. This Friday, the Unión Eléctrica (UNE) reported only 900 MW available against a demand of 2,142 MW in the early morning hours, with 1,245 MW affected.
For the peak nighttime demand, the agency forecasted a deficit of 1,900 MW and an estimated impact of 1,930 MW, which means that the system can only meet about 32% of the country's needs.
The situation worsened even further this Friday with the shutdown of the Ernesto Guevara thermoelectric plant, which adds to the outage of unit 1 at the Antonio Guiteras power station —the largest in the country, located in Matanzas— that occurred on Tuesday due to a leak in the economizer, and the three weeks the Felton thermoelectric plant in Holguín has been out of service, with a planned return by the end of the month.
The national maximum outage has steadily increased over the week: 1,764 MW on Sunday, 1,816 MW on Monday, 1,883 MW on Tuesday, 1,920 MW on Thursday, and the estimated 1,930 MW for this Friday.
Granma has a concerning record of total disconnections so far this year.
On June 23, a voltage drop in the Renté–Santiago de Cuba line left the province without electricity, resulting in a national deficit of 1,709 MW.
On July 4th, it was automatically disconnected from the SEN after a sudden drop in frequency during the synchronization of the Felton thermoelectric plant. And on October 26th, it was left completely dark due to the tripping of the 220 kV line that connects it to the national system.
The dependency of the eastern province on just a few high-voltage lines makes it one of the most vulnerable in the country: any anomaly in those connections—such as overload, voltage drop, or frequency instability—triggers automatic protections and leaves the entire population without supply immediately.
The Granma Electric Company indicated that it will continue to provide updates on the progress of the service restoration, while the power outage map in Granma reflects the extent of the impact in the area.
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