Cuba will have around 43% of its territory affected by blackouts during peak demand hours this Wednesday (18) due to a lack of fuel and failures in thermoelectric plants, reported the state company Unión Eléctrica (UNE).
That is by far the highest percentage in six months and one of the highest this year, comparable only to two peaks in the first quarter, when there were percentages of 44% on March 15 and 45% on February 12.
There are currently six damaged onshore thermoelectric units and 59 distributed generation plants (electric motors) out of service due to a lack of fuel (diesel and fuel oil), according to UNE.
The company, which belongs to the Ministry of Energy and Mines, foresees a maximum electricity generation capacity of 1,939 megawatts (MW) for a demand that will reach 3,250 MW.
The deficit will be 1,320 MW, and the impact (what is actually disconnected from the grid) will reach 1,390 MW at the so-called “peak hour”, the moment of maximum demand, in the afternoon and evening.
The Cuban electrical system is in a very precarious state due to frequent breakdowns in the production units of the seven thermoelectric plants, which are obsolete due to more than four decades of use and the chronic lack of investment and maintenance.
In recent years, the Cuban regime has leased several floating power plants to mitigate the lack of generation capacity, a quick but expensive and polluting solution that does not solve the structural problem of the national energy system.
Frequent power outages are hurting the Cuban economy – which is expected to contract by 1.9% in 2023 – and are fueling social discontent in a society already badly hit by a four-year economic crisis.
They have also sparked anti-government protests in recent years, including those on July 11, 2021 – the largest in decades – and those on March 17 in Santiago de Cuba, in the east of the country, and other regions.
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