Madrid/ Havana/Two months after the last partial disconnection of the national energy system (SEN) that left the west without electricity, tonight it was the turn of the eastern zone. The breakdown of a substation located in Holguín caused the service to collapse in some areas of that province and left Granma, Santiago de Cuba and Guantánamo completely dark.
“At 8:54 p.m. a failure occurred in the Holguín 220 kV Substation that caused the disconnection of the Electrical System,” announced the Electrical Union (UNE) in an urgent report. “With the disconnection, unit 1 of the Lidio Ramón Pérez CTE, Felton; the Moa engines and units 3 and 5 of the Antonio Maceo CTE, Renté, go out of service,” added the information, disseminated through all the company’s channels.
The state company added that from that moment on, “the restoration protocols for the eastern zone began to guarantee its new connection to the SEN, the startups of the aforementioned units and the reestablishment of the load affected by the event.”
“The restoration protocols for the eastern zone to guarantee its new connection to the SEN, the startups of the aforementioned units and the restoration of the load affected by the event”
Shortly after 1 in the morning, the Holguín electricity company declared service fully restored in the province, which did not mean that there would be light. “The circuits that are affected at this moment are due to a deficit in generation capacity,” the state company stated. That value amounted to 52 megawatts at 3 and remains at 48 now.
The people of Santiago have had less “luck”, as at almost five in the morning they continue to be called to order. “The Santiago electric company asks customers to please, as they receive the service, not to connect high-consuming equipment. It is important that we all contribute so that the electro-energy system stabilizes little by little and does not receive abrupt demands that it cannot withstand and could cause it to collapse again.”
In Granma, the situation was more similar to that of Holguín, despite the total blackout suffered. The reconnection was closed in most of the circuits around 4 in the morning, but the effects were high. So much so that 14 hours and 38 minutes of blackout were announced in Charco Redondo. Guantánamo, for its part, has not even updated the evolution of the breakdown or the availability of energy.
“The disaster is total and absolute… don’t expect the collapse: it is already happening,” stated a UNE client on social networks upon the announcement of the disconnection of the SEN. “It doesn’t surprise me. It’s news that those dishes work together for 15 days,” added another.
Customers in the eastern area once again complained about being, once again, the most affected, but neither the center nor the west are now spared. This Wednesday, in Camagüey there were more than 29 hours of continuous blackout, while in the capital there were almost 10 hours without electricity in the neighborhood where the Editorial Office is located. 14ymedio.
In the capital there were almost 10 hours without electricity in the neighborhood where the ’14ymedio’ Editorial Office is located
In Nuevo Vedado, a woman commented between joking and resignation that perhaps the power would never return. The area suffered this Wednesday “three blackouts, one in the morning between 9 and 12. Another two in the afternoon, the first between 2:00 and 3:30 pm and the second between 4:00 pm and 9:00 pm” In total, 9 and a half hours without light.
The main limitations at the moment – in addition to sudden breakdowns like last night – are concentrated in distributed generation, although the UNE reports stopped reporting on it days ago. But in thermal generation there is no shortage of problems: in addition to the failures in unit 5 of Mariel, 2 of Felton and 6 of Antonio Maceo, there are also scheduled maintenance in unit 5 of Nuevitas and 4 of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, in Cienfuegos.
The CTE Antonio Guiteras, from Matanzas, the largest unit in the country, also remains outside the system, despite the fact that the authorities promised that it would enter service this Wednesday. An effect in the boiler superheater area, Román Pérez Castañeda, deputy technical director of the plant, told Radio 26 this Tuesday, delayed “a few hours” the conclusion of the maintenance to which it is being subjected.
Today’s panorama adds to that of previous days, in which the deficit is close to two-thirds of demand. Last Saturday, the impact reached a record of 63%, which reflects an unstoppable deterioration of the national electrical system.
In the midst of this scenario, the official press continues to echo each solar park that is installed. In Granma, for example, the official media La Demajagua reported with great fanfare this Wednesday that work on the installation of battery systems intended to store the energy generated by solar parks is advancing rapidly.
The figures show that photovoltaic generation begins to occupy a relevant space during the hours of greatest radiation, but its impact is diluted when night falls.
According to the Electrical Union’s own report, the 49 new photovoltaic solar parks produced 3,206 megawatt-hours (MWh) on Tuesday and reached a maximum power of 606 MW around noon.
The figures show that photovoltaic generation begins to occupy a relevant space during the hours of greatest radiation, but its impact is diluted when night falls, just at the moment when consumption skyrockets and the system registers its greatest deficits.
Added to this structural limitation is the almost non-existent large-scale storage capacity in the country, a factor that prevents conserving the solar energy produced during the day to cover part of the nighttime demand. Official data and the authorities themselves have recognized on several occasions that These alternatives will never be enough to compensate for the lack of thermal energy in the country.
