Havana, June 25 (EFE).- 11% of Cuba will have blackouts in the afternoon hours of this Tuesday when demand increases, according to the daily forecasts of the state company Unión Eléctrica (UNE).
Breakdowns in some units of terrestrial thermoelectric plants (CTE), maintenance, as well as lack of fuel are some of the causes of the current energy crisis, according to the UNE.
The power outages worsened in May with effects that exceeded 10 hours a day in several provinces of the country.
The UNE, belonging to the Ministry of Energy and Mines, calculates for this day a maximum electricity generation capacity of 2,558 megawatts (MW) for a demand that would reach 2,800 MW.
The deficit – the difference between supply and demand – will be 242 MW and the impact – what will actually be disconnected – will reach 312 MW in the so-called ‘peak time’, in the evening of this Tuesday.
The Cuban electrical system is in a precarious situation due to the lack of imported fuel and breakdowns in the seven CTEs, obsolete due to their more than four decades of use and the chronic lack of investments and maintenance.
In the last six years, the Cuban Government has rented up to seven floating power plants (of which currently only five remain) to alleviate the lack of generation capacity, a quick but temporary, polluting and expensive solution.
The frequent cuts in the electricity supply damage the Cuban economy – which in 2023 contracted between 1 and 2% – and fuel social discontent in a society already seriously affected by an economic crisis for four years.
They have also been the trigger for the 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 (east) and other locations. EFE
lbp/gad
#Cuba
