Cuba will suffer blackouts throughout the day on Monday, affecting up to 30% of the country in the evening, the time of greatest demand, mainly due to breakdowns and lack of fuel, the state-owned company reported. Electrical Union (UNE).
The energy crisis in Cuba has worsened in recent weeks, with power outages affecting the service on a daily basis and affecting up to a third of the Caribbean country, according to reports from UNE, part of the Ministry of Energy and Mines.
For today, the company forecasts a maximum power generation capacity of 2,300 megawatts (MW) for a demand that will reach 3,200 MW.
Currently, three of the country’s seven thermoelectric plants are out of order, and 51 generating systems (which use diesel) are out of fuel.
Therefore, the deficit – the difference between supply and demand – will be 900 MW and the impact – what will actually be disconnected – will reach 970 MW during the so-called “peak hours”, the time of maximum demand, in the evening.
The Cuban electrical system is in a very precarious state due to frequent breakdowns in the seven thermoelectric plantsobsolete due to more than four decades of use and a chronic lack of investment and maintenance.
In recent years, the Cuban government has rented several floating power plants to mitigate the lack of generating capacity.
Frequent power outages are damaging the Cuban economy – which shrank by 1.9% in 2023 – and are fuelling social discontent in a society already severely affected by an economic crisis for the past four years.
They have also sparked the anti-government protests of recent years, including those of July 11, 2021 – the largest in decades – and those of March 17 in Santiago de Cuba and other locations. EFE (I)
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