The Ministry of Energy and Mines (Minem) of Cuba reported this Wednesday that The country suffered a new national blackout, the third in just two monthsafter the failure in a key thermoelectric plant for the National Electric System (SEN).
“At 2:08 this morning there was the disconnection of the Electrical System, SEN, when the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant leaves due to the automatic trip. “We are working on the restoration process,” Minem indicated on social networks.
Cuba suffered another national blackout on October 18 due to another breakdown in that same thermoelectric plant and another with the passage of Hurricane Rafael, November 6with category 3 (out of 5) on the Saffir-Simpson scale in the west of the country.
In both cases It took days to restore service throughout the island. The country has been mired in an energy crisis for years due to a lack of fuel – due to the lack of foreign currency to import it – and due to frequent breakdowns in its obsolete thermoelectric plants, with decades of operation and a chronic investment deficit. The situation has worsened since the end of August.
So far, no other government authority has commented on this new collapse of the energy system.
Frequent blackouts weigh on the economy
On Tuesday, the Caribbean country registered its highest rate of damage due to electricity generation deficitwith 52%, a figure similar to that announced on November 19.
Frequent blackouts hamper the economy – which has already contracted 1.9% in 2023 – and fuel social discontentvisible in the mass migration of recent years and in the unusual protests that have been recorded since 2021.
In mid-November, the Minister of Economy, Joaquín Alonso Vázquez, recognized that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will also suffer a contraction in 2024.
“The economic development of a country depends largely on energy and we have had electrical problems throughout the year (…) On the other hand, We have not had a stable fuel supply this year either. There is a shortage of gasoline, diesel, etc…. and the economy needs energy to be dynamic,” he lamented.
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