Very discreetly, as if she didn’t want to spoil the “surprise”, the Cuban press announced that this Saturday there would be no blackouts. “It is estimated that during the daytime the service will not be affected due to capacity deficit,” he pointed Unión Eléctrica (UNE) concisely in its daily message, which has been cautiously reproduced by the official media.
“I hope I read it correctly,” commented one of the readers of the message on Facebook who, like the rest of the Cubans who have been enduring the instability of the National Electric System (SEN) for more than a year, do not believe the news. “Hopefully it’s not another ‘hoax’ of imperialism,” ironized another user, alluding to Díaz-Canel’s “promise” to end blackouts in December.
Although it remains to be seen if the UNE forecast will be fulfilled throughout the national territory, and for how long, the state monopoly believes that, “if conditions continue”, there will be no blackouts during night hours either.
The inability to have electricity during the summer of this year once again prompted Cubans to protest in the streets
Power outages have been one of the most powerful triggers for social unrest on the island. The inability to have electricity during the summer of this year once again prompted Cubans to protest in the streets. Although they were harshly repressed by the Police, the citizens put pressure on the regime in the search for energy alternatives.
The explosion of the Matanzas Supertanker Base, where a significant amount of crude oil was stored, and the destruction caused in the western part of the country by Hurricane Ian, seemed to definitively distance the fulfillment of Díaz-Canel’s “prophecy”. The continuous missteps of the SEN cost the Minister of Energy and Mines, Liván Arronte, and the director of the UNE, Jorge Armando Cepero, their posts.
The UNE statement is not without excessive enthusiasm either. The difference between demand (some 1,860 megawatts) and availability (2,440) offers a good margin of action, but the country’s thermoelectric plants (CTE) are still awaiting essential repairs for their proper functioning.
In fact, units 6 and 7 of the Mariel CTE, 4 of Nuevitas CTE, 5 of the Renté CTE, 2 of Felton are still out of service, and unit 1 of the Santa Cruz CTE and 3 and 4 of the CTE Renté. The UNE recognizes that there are still limitations of up to 371 megawatts in electricity generation, and that there are 848 MW whose generation is impossible due to failures in the SEN.
During peak hours, the margin is not remotely wide: 2,815 MW available for a demand of 2,730, which means a reserve of only 85 MW. A break in a machine or a SEN outage from one of the thermoelectric plants is enough to destroy the record of a day without blackouts.
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