Havana/The electrical situation is critical and only the solar parks provide a “daytime respite.” With these words, without hot words and from the headline, Invader draw this Friday panorama in Ciego de Ávila. According to Lester Arencibia Bacallao, director of the Provincial Load Dispatch of the Electric Company, the territory suffers the “extinguishable maximum”, that is, power outages that last up to 24 hours a day.
For this reason, they are prioritizing the circuits that provide energy to “critical centers”, such as the Provincial Hospital or Combined Dairy. These, however, are not exempt from service cuts: three and a half hours of blackout for every three and a half hours with electricity.
Arencibia responded to a “frequent concern among the population” – “why are these circuits so extensive and are they not segmented to release energy for more areas?” – without clarifying too much. “These circuits have been physically like this for many years. This is the configuration they have had,” he explained to the provincial newspaper (which clarifies in a final note that the text was generated with artificial intelligence based on the information provided by the official).
Making changes “requires very expensive investments, such as laying 33 kilovolt lines and installing substations, resources not available in the current economic situation”
Making changes, Arencibia explained, “requires very expensive investments, such as laying 33 kilovolt (kV) lines and installing substations, resources not available in the current economic situation.”
As for the “non-prioritized” circuits, the intention is that they do not exceed 12 consecutive hours of blackout, but the official acknowledged that with the current deficit “this is impossible.” And he detailed: “Sometimes the circuits even go from 12 to 14 hours. They have even been turned off for 19 and 20 hours in a row.”
The manager also addressed the extent to which solar parks alleviate the situation. Although he said that photovoltaic generation is “the main palliative” – in Ciego de Ávila there are three solar parks of 21.4 MW and four smaller ones, which add up to a total capacity of more than 76 MW – he recalled that this type of energy “is intermittent.”
The greatest contribution they can make, between 10:30 and 2:30 p.m., is also fragile, simply because of a cloud. “This volatile nature, together with the lack of storage systems, prevents us from having this energy in a stable manner and for the critical nighttime peak hours,” he indicates. Invader. And Arencibia adds: “During the day, many tons of fuel are saved with solar parks… and if we do the math and we didn’t have any of those parks, the situation would be much worse.”
Although the interview focused on the province of Ciego de Ávila, the official did not refrain from issuing conclusions about the rest of the country: as long as the “structural problems of national thermal generation are not resolved,” the situation “will continue to be complex.”
One of the damaged facilities was the Hermanos Díaz Oil Refining Company, on which the supply of fuel throughout the east depends.
On the energy issue, if there is news in the official press, it refers to the effects of Hurricane Melissa, which persists almost a month later in eastern Cuba. One of the damaged facilities was the Hermanos Díaz Oil Refining Company, in Santiago de Cuba, on which the supply of fuel from Las Tunas to Guantánamo depends. “Diesel, fuel for electricity generation, kerosene for mountainous areas, lubricants and other derivatives depend on its stable operation,” he told Sierra Maestra Juan Jesus Alfonso Lopezdirector of Cupet Refining.
At the refinery, the newspaper reports, “uninterrupted days are carried out to restore vitality to the plant.” The hurricane-force winds – up to 200 kilometers per hour – caused “severe damage to internal electrical networks, thermal insulation, maritime containment barriers and other systems critical to the refining process.”
Precisely this Thursday, President Miguel Díaz-Canel visited, again dressed in olive green, areas of the provinces of Santiago de Cuba and Granma, the hardest hit by the cyclone. In this, it was admired, the electrical service has been recovered by 96.43%. “There are 9,000 clients left in remote areas, which we are working on,” he assured.
The daily deficit, meanwhile, is returning to its pre-hurricane figures, once again approaching 2,000 MW. On Wednesday, the Cuban Electrical Union It even registered an impact of 1,964 MW during peak demand hours, in the afternoon and evening. For the next day, an availability of 1,494 MW was expected for a demand of 3,200 MW, so the deficit would be 1,706 MW, although the real impact was expected to be 1,776 MW..
Six units of thermoelectric power plants (CTE) are out of service due to breakdown or maintenance: one in Felton, three in the CTE Renté, another in Santa Cruz and one more in Cienfuegos, as well as the Puerto Escondido gas plant, in Varadero.
