SAN LUIS POTOSÍ, Mexico.- The Cuban regime justified this Saturday, September 14, that the theft of dielectric oil in the transformers of the electric company causes “considerable damage” and prolonged power outages.
According to the report broadcast in the official Caribbean Channel On Saturday night, the directors of the Electric Union, specialists from the Interior Ministry and the Attorney General’s Office implemented “a set of actions” for “dielectric oil theft.”
“The theft of resources in infrastructures like these leaves neighborhoods and communities without electricity. When they occur in substations and steal oil from a transformer in a 4,000 KVA substation, that causes more than 4,000, around 5,000 customers to be left without service. This has an economic and social connotation,” said pro-government journalist Bernardo Espinosa.
In the note, where UNE executives were interviewed, they said that these events began with equipment in electrical substations, but more recently they have occurred in distribution transformers that are on columns, on poles.
In this regard, they referred to one of these thefts, at the Nazareno substation, in the Mayabeque municipality of San José de las Lajas. There, the alleged perpetrators of the crime were caught. in flagrante and they left several 20-litre tanks on site.
The investigation revealed that it was “an organised group of five who were engaged in this illegal activity”, according to the police. All of them were given provisional prison sentences.
They also added that this type of crime is considered “sabotage”, as defined in the Penal Code in articles 125 and 126. For this act, they could receive 7 to 15 years of imprisonment.
The “cause” of the blackouts
Officials explained that due to breakdowns in transformers due to the theft of dielectric oil, restoring service “has become more complex.” “The events that have been occurring in recent times have caused the reserve to decrease and we no longer have reserve transformers.”
They also justified that they have to resort to looking for transformers in other provinces, obtain transportation for the transfer, and this sometimes takes more than 24 hours.
“As happened last week in a town in Villa Clara, they were without service for about three days,” they argued.
This is how officials defend themselves from the power outages that plague the people every day.
For this Sunday, the Cuban Electric Union (UNE) has predicted a fateful weekend closure: the lack of fuel will produce high electrical service disruptionsThe biggest deficit will occur during peak consumption hours, when some 860 MW will be affected, leaving a large part of the country offline.
In the ill-fated panorama Some 42 distributed generation plants and engines are out of service on the Regla and Melones platforms due to a lack of diesel.
In addition, unit 2 of the CTE Felton and units 5 and 6 of the CTE Rente are “damaged”.
Although they are expecting the entry of unit 6 of the CTE Antonio Maceo, the generation will not reach the necessary 3,200 MW, so the impact will reach 860 MW.
