The Union Electrica de Cuba (UNE) has announced that the country is still struggling with serious problems in electricity generation, leading to widespread Power outages since the early hours of August 17. The official statement said that the supply disruptions due to a lack of power generation capacity began at 7:46 a.m. the previous day and lasted until the early hours of Saturday.
On August 16, the largest power outage peaked at 833 MW at 21:00, although it did not coincide with the peak load period. This larger than planned outage was caused by the unexpected shutdown of Units 2 of the Santa Cruz Thermal Power Plant (CTE) and 3 of the CTE pension.
The National Electricity System (SEN) began on Saturday with an availability of 2,360 MW, while demand reached 2,430 MW, which meant that 92 MW were affected by the deficit in generation capacity. UNE estimates that the maximum disruption could reach 350 MW in the coming hours due to inability to meet demand.
Impact of plant closures and fuel shortages
Units 1 and 2 of the Santa Cruz CTE, Unit 5 of the New CTEUnit 3 of the CTE pension and Unit 2 of the Felton CTE are currently out of service due to faults, limiting thermal power generation by a further 449 MW. In addition, 38 distributed power generation plants are offline due to fuel shortages, increasing the impact by a further 229 MW.
For peak periods, UNE plans to bring online Unit 2 of the Santa Cruz CTE with a capacity of 60 MW and recover 50 MW from distributed generation facilities currently out of service due to fuel problems. Nevertheless, an availability of 2,470 MW is expected against a maximum demand of 3,220 MW, resulting in a deficit of 750 MW and an impact of about 820 MW during peak consumption.
The regime had promised to reduce power outages during the holiday months, but admitted in late July that a shortage of diesel fuel and some “unexpected” outages prevented the electricity supply from stabilizing. They have failed to keep their promises to the public and, to make matters worse, have called on private citizens and government agencies to implement energy-saving measures to mitigate the blackouts.
Frequently asked questions about power outages in Cuba
This section addresses common questions and concerns about the ongoing power outages in Cuba, their causes, and possible solutions.
What is causing the power outages in Cuba?
The power outages are primarily due to serious problems in power generation, unexpected shutdowns of major power plants and fuel shortages.
How long are the power outages expected to last?
The duration of the outages is unknown, but UNE has indicated that disruptions may continue in the foreseeable future due to ongoing problems with electricity generation capacity.
What measures are being taken to combat the power outages?
UNE plans to bring some power plants back online and restore the capacity of decentralized power generation plants. In addition, private individuals and government agencies have called for energy saving measures.
