“In this situation that has worsened in recent days, additional instructions were issued to paralyze all state work activities that are not strictly essential,” said Prime Minister Marrero this Thursday (10/17/2024), in a national network broadcast. radio and television, without specifying the term of the measure. The official stated that the provision is to prioritize service to homes.
For his part, President Miguel Díaz-Canel said earlier on social network X that the island faces an “energy emergency” due to problems acquiring fuel abroad to feed its energy system.
“The complex scenario we are going through has its main cause in the intensification of the economic war and financial and energy persecution of the United States, which makes it difficult to import fuel and other resources necessary for that industry,” said the president, referring to to the intensification of Washington’s sanctions against the island.
The electricity bill will become more expensive for the private sector
The prime minister also announced that a new, higher electricity rate will be established for the non-state sector – which is now governed by the residential sector – because “they are generating wealth.”
The prime minister did not provide details about this plan, except to note that it would be a higher rate than that of the residential sector, which is “subsidized”, and that the Government expects it to come into force this year.
Marrero advanced this initiative in an unusual television appearance, after six weeks of frequent and prolonged blackouts throughout the country. Furthermore, in dialogue with two officials from the Ministry of Energy and Mines, he reviewed the problems of the national energy system and reiterated the Government’s strategy to reduce the effects.
The general director of the state Unión Eléctrica (UNE), Alfredo López, assured in this context that the solutions will come “step by step” and results will only be seen “in the medium term.” And he added that the ministry is “aware” and “very sensitive” to the problems that frequent blackouts generate for the population.
Biggest blackout so far this year
This Thursday, Cuba registered its highest rate of electrical damage so far this year, which at the time of maximum demand reached 51%, according to the state-run Electrical Union (UNE). This means that the outages simultaneously affected more than half of the country, and caused blackouts of up to 20 hours in a day in some provinces. The state company Unión Eléctrica (UNE) foresees blackouts in about 49% of the island this Friday.
In Cuba, electricity is generated through its eight worn-out thermoelectric plants, obsolete due to more than four decades of use and the chronic lack of investment and maintenance. In addition to generating sets and seven floating plants that the Government rents to Turkish companies, a quick, but expensive, polluting solution that does not solve the structural problem of the national energy system.
To this has been added in recent times the fuel deficit, the result of the State’s lack of foreign currency to import it.
Cubans have been suffering again, for months, from the hated blackouts that are prolonged and increasingly frequent, with a deficit of 30% in national coverage on many days. Service interruptions of four hours or more a day are recorded even in large areas of Havana.
In the Plaza de la Revolución municipality in Havana, which houses the nerve center of power in the country, this Thursday “all services that are not vital and that generate energy costs” were suspended, with the exception of essential centers such as hospitals and food processing, the local government announced on its Facebook page. Classes are also suspended until Monday and nightclubs and entertainment venues will remain closed.
Since Wednesday, authorities in the province of Camagüey, in the center of the country, announced that they were working “to guarantee service for approximately three hours,” the local electricity company indicated in X.
«Here we are in a total blackout, this has no name. Things from the cold are spoiling for us,” Eugenia Sánchez, a 41-year-old housewife, told AFP via Whatsapp. «Before they were 2 and 4 pm. Now they are 8 and 10 p.m.,” he added.
In the province of La Tunas (east), authorities began to distribute charcoal for cooking food, especially in urban settlements.
Economic and political impact
Frequent cuts in the electricity supply damage the Cuban economy – which in 2023 contracted 1.9%, according to official data and remains below 2019 levels – and drive social unrest in a society already seriously affected by a crisis. economically for more than four years.
They have also triggered anti-government protests, including those on July 11, 2021 – the largest in decades – and those on March 17 in Santiago de Cuba (east) and other locations.
According to the tolerated local independent press, dozens of people demonstrated at the beginning of this week in the provinces of Sancti Spíritus (center) and Holguín (northeast) over the long blackouts.
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