MADRID, Spain. – Last Thursday, the Cuban president described the present energy situation in Cuba as “tense”.
According to information released by Prensa Latina, during a visit to Ciego de Ávila province, the president said that “there are difficult days ahead for us to generate electric energy, due to a deficit of our capacity to generate it and of fuel oil.”
As is always the case with official discourse, the president also blamed the U.S. embargo for this situation.
In late May, Díaz-Canel had already indicated that “the situation looks complex, between maintenance, breakage and fuel availability.”
According to his statements, “since there is not sufficient diesel fuel available to generate [power] with the support stations, the distributed energy thus generated that supports the lack of thermal generation is not enough to provide service.”
Cuba’s Electric Grid Crisis
Last Thursday, Unión Eléctrica de Cuba / Cuba’s Electric Union (UNE, by its Spanish acronym) notified that the day before, service had been affected between 8:32 a.m. and 7:44 p.m.
Also, it stated that there are several units out of service due to damages Units 6 and 7 of the thermoelectric plant Máximo Gómez; Unit 3 of the Ernesto Guevara plant; Units 4 and 5 of the Diez de Octubre plant, and Unit 3 of the Antonio Maceo plant. Out of service, also, due to maintenance: the Otto Parellada plant; Unit 2 of the Lidio Ramón Pérez plant, and Units 5 and 6 of the Antonio Maceo plant.
During last year, UNE reported more than 300 out-of-service incidents due to damages or maintenance tasks at most thermoelectric plants in the country.
The crisis worsened during April and May, months which have brought eight-hour blackouts –and higher- to the Cuban people.
Blackouts in the island were one of the principal detonators of anti-government protests on July 11, 2021.
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