Almost half of Cuba (49.7%) will have blackouts this Wednesday in one of the highest rates of the year, after registering yesterday the highest rate of impact (discounting the two total disconnections of the electrical grid) with a maximum deficit rate close to 52%, according to the state-owned Unión Eléctrica (UNE).
This means that more than half of the light bulbs across the country will be forcibly turned off during peak hoursthe moment of greatest energy demand, which takes place during the evening-night.
The UNE, dependent on the Ministry of Energy and Mines, calculates for the afternoon-night of this day a maximum electricity generation capacity of 1,629 megawatts (MW) for a demand that will reach 3.100 MW.
The deficit – the difference between supply and demand – will be 1,471 MW and the affectation -the circuits that will actually be disconnected to avoid messy outages- will reach 1,541 MW during peak hours.
The energy crisis, entrenched with ups and downs for years in Cuba, has worsened significantly since the end of August. In Havanathey are being programmed daily blackouts of at least five hours and in Santiago de Cubathe second largest city in the country, only four hours of electricity are guaranteed per day.
After this 52% deficit, the highest rate so far in 2024 under ordinary conditions was the one announced on October 17, with around 51%.
The next day, a breakdown in the thermoelectric plant Antonio Guiterasa key power plant, led to a total blackout throughout the country, the first of two that the country has suffered this year and from which it began to emerge three days later.
The passage of Hurricane Rafael Just three weeks later it led to the second complete disconnection of the National Energy System (SEN).
The Cuban SEN is in a very precarious situation due to the lack of fuel -as a result of the lack of foreign currency to import it- and the repeated breakdowns of obsolete thermoelectric plants of the country, with more than 40 years of exploitation and chronic deficit in investment and maintenance.
Frequent blackouts hamper the economy – which has already contracted 1.9% in 2023 – and fuel social discontent, visible in the mass migration of recent years and in the unusual protests that have been registered since 2021 in the country.
(With information from agencies)
