The Cuban regime Miguel Diaz-Canel asked this week to state and private companies and foreign entities that generate more of their own electricity from renewable sources and limit the use of air conditioners, as the country goes through its worst energy crisis in decades.
The new regulations urge major energy consumers to install renewable energy sources capable of producing at least 50% of the electricity they consume during several hours of the day in the next three years.
“It means that in all entities, both private and state (…) they must take all measures that allow you to reduce the consumption of electricity demand”, Leisy Hernández, director of the energy control and use office in Cuba, said Thursday on local television.
The increasingly restrictive measures come as Cuba’s electrical grid is on the verge of collapse, with multiple blackouts in October and November leaving millions of people in the dark for days.
Blackouts continue across the country as Cuba tries to obtain fuel and the spare parts it needs to generate enough electricity to meet demand.
Authorities in Havana blame US sanctions and an acute economic crisis for the increasingly tense situation.
On the other hand, the Cuban regime predicts low or no growth in its economy for this year, after two powerful hurricanes and two earthquakes that shook the island in less than three weeks, added to two colossal blackouts that left the country almost paralyzed for days.
“The economy should not grow”The minister of the portfolio, Joaquín Alonso, said in a conference when taking stock of the contingencies that the island went through between October and November.
The country has “had a month of low production levels, not only due to weather events, but also due to energy events,” he noted.
In 2023, Cuba’s GDP suffered a contraction of 1.9%, dragged down by low levels of production, shortage of foreign currency and little access to credit.
Alonso pointed out that the government does not have “a magic wand” to advance the GDP result, but said that ECLAC foresees an increase of 0.4% for the year.
“You don’t have to do many studies” to know that “the economic development of a country also depends, to a large extent, on energy. And we have had electrical problems throughout the year”indicated the minister.
On October 18, a total blackout was recorded that left almost all of the 10 million Cubans in darkness for at least four days. In the midst of this contingency, the Hurricane Oscar in the east of the island, leaving eight dead and two missing.
The lives of Cubans had not returned to normal when the winds of the Cyclone Rafael They collapsed the electrical system again on November 6, shortly before hitting the western part of the island. As a culmination four days later, two earthquakes in a row, the most powerful of magnitude 6.8, shook the earth in the southeast.
Since the first general power outage, the authorities had declared the country in an “energy emergency,” for failures in their worn-out thermoelectric plants and lack of fuel.
The country’s essential activities were suspended, transportation stopped almost completely. Many homes were left without gas and water, while the telephone network and internet service were affected. 10% of the crops were lost due to the rains and winds that Oscar and Rafael brought.
(With information from AFP and Reuters)
