The blackouts in Cuba this Wednesday were greater than officially expected.
Instead of the 342 MW officially predicted, the maximum impact rose to 766 MW in the night peak, as recognized by the Electrical Union (UNE) itself.
The failure in the calculations, of more than 400 MW, meant more Cubans in the dark due to the non-entry into the electrical system of two generating plants and the unforeseen departure of a third.
“Deficit higher than planned due to non-entry of units 5 of the Mariel CTE, unit 2 of the Santa Cruz CTE and departure of unit 5 of the Rente CTE,” UNE explained on its networks.
According to the entity, the blackouts extended from 10:26 in the morning until 1:57 in the morning, and at 6:38 AM today “the service began to be affected due to a deficit in generation capacity.”
For midday, the UNE predicts an impact of 400 MW and for the night peak it will increase to 710 MW, if the planned actions are carried out and no other breakdown occurs.
At night the entity foresees the entry of unit 2 of the Santa Cruz del Norte thermoelectric plant, with 60 MW, and “the recovery of 100 MW that are out for fuel in distributed generation plants.”
Díaz-Canel: “Zero blackout under current conditions is very difficult”
see more
Broken plants and lack of fuel
Along with unit 2 of the Santa Cruz thermoelectric plant, which must enter the system tonight, unit 5 of the Mariel also woke up damaged this Thursday, which, like the other, did not start yesterday as planned and at least today it will not start either. .
In addition, unit 5 in Nuevitas and unit 2 in Felton – affected for months by a fire – remain out of operation due to breakages, while unit 1 in Santa Cruz is stopped for maintenance work.
In total, according to the UNE, the limitations in the so-called thermal generation are 476 MW, while in distributed generation 579 MW will be affected due to lack of fuel.
For this reason, 61 generating plants are out of service, as well as the Regla and Melones patios.
Cuba has been suffering for several years from a chronic crisis with electricity generation, caused by the age of the generating plants and the difficult economic situation, which affects investments and necessary maintenance, as well as the import of fuel.
In this context, the UNE assures that it is working to ensure that the blackouts are not prolonged, and is executing a maintenance schedule for the long-standing Cuban thermoelectric plants with the aim of reaching July and August “in better conditions.”
As explained to Granma recently Julio González Céspedes, director of Maintenance of that entity, in those summer months, Cuban thermoelectric plants must contribute an average of 1,200 MW to the system, a figure 100 MW higher than that reached on the same date last year, but much lower than the 1993 MW of installed power.
