The Ministry of Energy and Mines (Minem) of the Cuban regime reported this Wednesday that the country suffered a new national blackout, the third in just two monthsafter the failure in a key thermoelectric plant for the National Electric System (SEN).
“At 2:08 this morning the disconnection of the Electrical System, SEN, occurred when the thermoelectric plant left Antonio Guiteras by automatic firing. “We are working on the restoration process,” Minem indicated on social networks.
Cuba suffered another national blackout on October 18 due to another breakdown in that same thermoelectric plant and another with the passage of Hurricane Rafael, on November 6with category 3 (out of 5) on the Saffir-Simpson scale in the west of the country.
In both cases it took days to restore service throughout the island.
The country is immersed in a energy crisis for years for the lack of fuel -due to the lack of foreign currency to import it- and due to the frequent breakdowns in its obsolete thermoelectric plantswith decades of exploitation and a chronic investment deficit. The situation has worsened since the end of August.
So far, no other regime authority has commented on this new collapse of the energy system.
On Tuesday, the Caribbean country registered its higher rate of affectation due to a deficit in electricity generation, with a 52%a figure similar to that announced on November 19.
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 mid-November, the Minister of Economy, Joaquín Alonso Vázquezrecognized that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will also suffer a contraction in 2024.
“The economic development of a country depends largely on energy and we have had electrical problems throughout the year (…) On the other hand, we have not had a stable supply of fuel this year either. There is a shortage of gasoline, diesel, etc., and the economy needs energy to be dynamic.”, he lamented.
The blackouts have also triggered anti-government protests such as those on July 11, 2021 – the largest in decades -, those in Nuevitas and Havana in August and September 2022, and those on March 17 in Santiago de Cuba.
(With information from agencies)
