havana/The Cuban Electricity Union (UNE) was needless to say this wednesdayin his usual forecast, that “the service was affected due to a deficit in generation capacity 24 hours a day.” Residents of a third of the Island were able to see it in the flesh. For the second day after day, there were simultaneous blackouts in up to 30% of the country, the worst figure in just over a month and a half.
“I feel like if they hit me I won’t even bleed. They have blackouts, and last night I couldn’t even shower,” laments Idelia, a resident of San Antonio de los Baños, Artemisa. There, the blackout came out from three in the afternoon to eight at night and ended up to three thirty in the morning. “More than 12 hours without electricity, and with this heat, who can stand that. “How sorry I am in my heart.”
The power outages have reached the José Martí International Airport in Havana. In Terminal 3 this Tuesday, tourists could be seen trying to reduce their hot flames with fans or waving leaflets in front of their sweaty faces.
“I feel like if they hit me I won’t even bleed. They have blackouts, and last night I couldn’t even take a bath.”
Over the public address system, a female voice warned that the air conditioning was off “for maintenance,” but an airport employee assured 14 interventions that the real reason is an “instruction” coming from “above” to save electricity: “We turn it off about three days a week.” Half of the escalators were also stopped, as was one of the elevators inside.
In the capital, many neighborhoods suffered power outages, even the least affected areas such as El Vedado or Centro Habana.
Residents of Holguin report to this newspaper midday blackouts and intermittent connection. From Sancti Spíritus, they regret that their power was cut off this past Tuesday, despite the fact that they had no scheduled blackouts these days. “Here we call the week when we don’t have a Marianao blackout week,” he explains 14 interventions a resident of the city of Sancti Spiritus, referring to a report broadcast by official television that went viral in which, ironically, a neighbor who was interviewed said “in Marianao we have everything.”
“It is no longer the breakdown of thermoelectric plants or the fuel shortage that causes martyrdom. Now the weight of the morning reports falls on the maintenance carried out in a few thermoelectric plants and in Energás to guarantee ‘better electricity service’ this summer. Something like the poor family who want to celebrate their daughter’s fifteenth party in style, and starve themselves for a few months and then get bored at the party, which lasts as long as a meringue at school door, “he wrote in their networks this Wednesday Pedro de Jesús, who lives in Fomento, Sancti Spíritus, for a long time mail denying the general condition of the Island.
The increase in the demand for heat increases the number of thermoelectric plants out of service
“Zero blackouts and more food,” could be read on the wall of a funeral home in San Antonio de Cabezas, in Unión de Reyes, Matanzas, according to the journalist. Mario Jose Penton. On the walls of the building, as can be seen in several photos, they had also written, in large letters: “Old people are the ones who should go to the streets” and “country and life.”
This Wednesday the situation was repeated. With an availability of 2,310 megawatts (MW), a peak demand of 3,050 MW was expected, which translates into a deficit of 740 MW and an impact of 810 MW during peak hours.
The increase in the demand for heat increases the number of thermoelectric plants (CTE) out of service. As the UNE said, unit 2 of the Felton is damaged, whose unit 1 is also under maintenance. Units 1 and 3 of CTE Santa Cruz, 6 of Nuevitas and 8 of Mariel CTE are also being maintained. This is in addition to the 34 distributed generation plants that were shut down due to lack of fuel.
Tomorrow the UNE will publish its daily report again, but it would not be necessary. Cubans already know what the day has in store for them: blackouts and more blackouts.
