This Sunday, May 5, the Cuban Electrical Union (UNE) could not generate enough electricity to cover the electricity demand throughout Cuba, so there were blackouts that lasted up to 24 hours in various parts of the country.
The situation, which reveals the energy crisis that is being experienced in the Greater Antilles, was due to the departure of several thermoelectric plants that had to be disconnected from the system for different reasons, including breakdowns, maintenance or simply the lack of fuel to operate them.
According to Lázaro Guerra Hernández, technical director of the UNE, there are currently six thermoelectric plants (CTE) that are out of service. Among these is Felton’s No. 1 unit in Holguín, which will be without generating electricity for 25 days due to supposed scheduled maintenance work.
The official indicated to the state press that the thermoelectric plants that are out due to a breakdown are unit 5 of the CTE Diez de Octubre; unit 3 of the CTE Santa Cruz; unit 6 of the CTE Rente and unit 2 of the CTE Felton.
For its part, unit 1 of the CTE Santa Cruz, unit 6 of the CTE Nuevitas and unit 8 of the CTE Mariel are out for scheduled maintenance work.
The official UNE note adds that 27 distributed generation plants throughout the country, as well as Patana de Regla, are out of service due to lack of fuel, which represents a loss of 268 MW.
The official forecast for the peak hour this Monday, May 6, is 881 MW, which means that it will not be possible to cover almost 40% of the country’s demand.
Because of this, Guerra Hernández warned that there will be a deficit of 881 MW during peak demand hours, so the outages “will extend throughout the day and into the early hours of the morning.”
The news generated discontent among citizens, who are getting tired of the constant blackouts in the middle of one of the hottest seasons of the year.
“Cuba, my beautiful Cuba, let’s go for more”; “I’m just going to read the comments and see how many people are happy, content, and celebrating their achievements” and “Little by little, up” were some of the most sarcastic comments left by Internet users.
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