The electric company of Havana attributes the interruption of the service to a breakdown in four key substations.
Miami, United States. – Havana dawned this Monday under the effects of a mass blackout that, although it lasted only a few hours, affected most of the municipalities and occurred unexpectedly, in the midst of the already usual energy crisis that the country is going through.
According to reported The electric company of Havana on its official Facebook page, the electricity cut was a consequence of a “breakdown in the Naranjito substation”, which in turn negatively impacted three other substations: prince, melons and tallapiedra. This fault left “without service to several areas in almost all the municipalities of the capital”, including Arroyo Naranjo, Boyeros, October ten, Plaza de la Revolución, Cerro, Centro Habana, Havana Vieja, Playa, La Lisa, Marianao, San Miguel del Padrón, Cotorro, Guanabacoa and Havana del Este.
The blackout occurred during the early morning and surprised a population that is already accustomed to scheduled cuts about four hours a day, but not to unforeseen interruptions like this.
The company explained that, after detecting the breakdown, the process of restoration of the service immediately began and prioritized “the main sources of water supply and hospitals” of the city. In an update published in the early hours of this Monday, the entity assured That “all hospitals in the capital already have electric service, as well as the main sources of water supply, which had been affected by the breakdown.”
Meanwhile, the situation of the National Electrical System (SEN) remains critical. In Your informative note of August 4Electric Union (UNE) reported that during the previous day the “24 -hour” service was affected and that the maximum affectation due to generation capacity deficit was 1,799 megawatts (MW) at 8:30 pm
At 06:00 in the morning of this Monday, the availability of SEN was just 1,760 MW against a demand of 3,210 MW, which generated an impact of 1,538 MW per capacity deficit. For peak schedule, the company predicts a deficit of 1,792 MW, with a possible affectation of up to 1,862 MW if the planned conditions are maintained.
Among the factors that aggravate the situation are the multiple breakdowns in key thermoelectric plants – such as Unit 6 of the CTE Mariel, Unit 2 of CTE Felton and Unit 5 of the CTE ten of October – as well as programmed maintenance and thermal limitations that take another 393 MW.
In addition, the lack of fuel has left 61 distributed generation centrals (485 MW) and the rule patanas (89 MW), which represents a total of 574 MW affected only by this cause.
The fragile current situation of SEN directly impacts other essential services such as the supply of drinking water and gas, in addition to the quality of life of citizens. Between October and March, the island already faced four generalized blackouts, some of which extended for several days.
