On Wednesday, the Cuban Power Company (UNE) has forecasted another day filled with severe blackouts, perpetuating the ongoing crisis. Just yesterday, the National Electric System (SEN) faced disruptions due to a shortfall in capacity that lasted throughout the day and continued into the early hours today.
The peak impact reached 1,709 MW at 7:10 p.m., aligning with the highest demand period. This surpassed the planned figures as unit 3 of the Santa Cruz Thermal Power Plant (CTE) failed to come online, as noted by UNE in its daily report. At 7:00 a.m. today, the availability of the National Electric System stood at 1,455 MW, while demand hit 2,360 MW, resulting in a deficit of 943 MW.
Projections indicate that by midday, the shortfall could rise to 1,300 MW, significantly affecting the central-eastern regions of the country. Presently, eight thermal power units are out of service, according to UNE. Four units are down due to malfunctions: unit 3 of the Santa Cruz CTE, unit 5 of the Diez de Octubre CTE, and units 1 and 2 of the Felton CTE.
In addition, five units are undergoing maintenance: unit 2 of the Santa Cruz CTE, units 3 and 4 of the Cienfuegos CTE, and unit 5 of the Renté CTE. However, during his increasingly brief and evasive daily briefing, engineer Lázaro Guerra Hernández, Director of Electricity at the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MINEM), only mentioned the breakdown of Unit 5 in Nuevitas, which was absent from UNE's report, and ignored the other ongoing malfunctions. This brings the total to nine, not eight, malfunctioning units.
Guerra Hernández did mention the potential return to service of unit 3 of the Santa Cruz CTE later in the day. Unlike the moderately probing tone of journalist Bernardo Espinosa—who at least posed questions—Guerra now addresses the country's plight in just a few minutes on national television.
Additional Energy Constraints Expected
Furthermore, there are thermal generation limitations affecting 325 MW. Due to fuel shortages, 72 distributed generation plants remain offline, a substantial figure representing a 468 MW impact. Additionally, the Moa fuel plant is inactive, causing a loss of 117 MW, totaling 585 MW affected due to these issues.
For peak hours, there is a forecasted recovery of 80 MW from distributed generation engines currently idle due to fuel shortages, along with the anticipated activation of unit 3 of the Santa Cruz CTE, providing 55 MW. With this outlook, an availability of 1,590 MW is expected against a peak demand of 3,200 MW, resulting in a 1,610 MW deficit.
If conditions persist, the expected shortfall will be 1,680 MW, heavily impacting the central-eastern region.
Scheduled Blackouts in Havana
The capital's power company has informed its customers that, due to the generation deficit in the National Electric System, scheduled power cuts will occur in Havana as per the following plan:
- From 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., blocks #1 and #2 will experience outages.
- From 2:00 p.m. onwards, block #3 will be affected until 5:00 p.m.
- Finally, from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., block #4 will face disruptions.
FAQs on Cuban Power Outages
What caused the severe power outages in Cuba?
The power outages are primarily due to a deficit in capacity, with multiple power plant units offline either for maintenance or due to malfunctions.
Which regions in Cuba are most affected by the power crisis?
The central-eastern regions of Cuba are experiencing the most significant impacts due to the power deficit.
What measures are being taken to address the power outages?
Efforts are being made to bring offline units back into service and recover power from distributed generation engines to mitigate the outages.