The gross generation of electricity in Cuba it fell between 2019 and 2023 from 20,705.6 gigawatts (GW) to 15,331.1 GW, 26% less stopped producing by state plants, while generation sources such as self-producing energy companies, especially sugar mills, also stopped producing.
This was highlighted by the report “Electricity in Cuba. Selected indicators 2023”, published by the state National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI).
The above, which explains part of the electricity crisis that the Island is experiencing, which has worsened since 2021, with frequent breakdowns of aging thermoelectric plants and blackouts of up to more than 20 hours per day in some territories, It destroys the triumphalist declarations of the authorities, who assure that they are working to improve the situation.
Among the indicators that support the above is that Generation supported by generators, one of the programs implemented by Fidel Castro, has also collapsed. In 2023, the worst generation figure in the last half decade for this concept was recorded (2,743.8 GW), lower than the 3,272.9 GW in 2022 and the 5,902.3 GW in 2021, the highest in the period described in the report.
Likewise, the number of generating sets decreased in 2023 to 546 among those that use fuel oil (from the 550 that existed in 2019), and to 810 of those that use diesel, from the 977 that existed five years ago.
In the same period, Both state and private consumption grew by 8% compared to 2022 (state demand rose by 15.6% and residential demand rose by 12.2%), while The contribution of renewable energies fell by 6.4% in the total generatedto reach just 3.6% of the total national energy supply.
Despite this and the promises of the authorities to base the solution to the energy problem in Cuba on renewable sources, which according to official statements should be 24% of the total in 2030, in 2023 the supply of this type of energy grew by just one 5%, mainly due to the increase in solar energy production.
But, as a consequence of the abrupt collapse of Cuban sugar production, The biomass energy contribution of the AZCUBA company suffered a decrease of 26%.
Then, during transmission and distribution, 18.7% of the total energy generated in the year was lost, recognized the ONEI, 8.4% more than in 2022.
In all this panorama, the most striking thing is that Mobile generation, supported by the exploitation of land rented to the Turkish company Karadeniz Holding, experienced an increase of 73%: from 2,591 gigawatt hours (Gwh) in 2022, to 4,494 Gwh in 2023.
For that reason, fuel imports increased in 2023 by 73.5% compared to 2022, which made the country more dependent on its oil suppliers. Shipments from its main support, Venezuela, have been unstable due to the crisis in the sector in that nation, and in 2023 they were largely sustained thanks to shipments from the state-owned Pemex of Mexico.
The panorama thus summarized explains the permanent blackouts suffered by Cubans, which has impacted the plummeting economic performance of the country, mired in one of its worst crises in more than half a century.
