The Electric Union (UNE) of Cuba confirmed this Thursday that its generation capabilities They were once again affected now by the departure of five electricity generating units from the western and eastern zones, according to official media reports on the island.
Among the affected units are number one of the Ernesto Guevara Thermoelectric Power Plant (CTE), in the western province of Mayabeque, and units four and six of the Diez de Octubre and Antonio Maceo thermoelectric plants, in the eastern provinces of Camagüey and Santiago de Cuba, respectively, according to a statement issued by the UNE and reviewed by the official newspaper Granma.
Two other units that were disconnected from the country’s electrical system belong to the Energas company, located in the tourist resort of Varadero, in the western province of Matanzas, the newspaper reports.
The generation deficit has affected the service in both the residential and state sectors, in the provinces that receive it from the stations disconnected from the system. In addition, the institutional communication indicates that maintenance work continues at four thermoelectric power plants (CTE) on the Island, as well as the reestablishment of two units at the Mariel CTE, located in the western province of Artemisa.
At the beginning of this week, the company had reported on the incorporation into the system of the Felton and Nuevitas thermoelectric plants, which had been out of service last week due to various breakdowns.
Cuba currently has an electricity generation capacity of around 5.87 GW, of which 3.2 GW are operational, according to UNE data managed by the agency Eph. Recently, the Ministry of Energy and Mines (Minem) announced the forthcoming arrival in the country of a floating power plant of Turkish origin that will contribute 15 megawatts to the national electricity system.
This new generating plant will be added to four others that are already operating on the island as part of the first project of the Turkish company Karen in Latin America, with the objective of alleviating the generation deficit caused in recent months by frequent breakdowns in thermoelectric plants. Cubans, says the Spanish agency.
Cuba: electrical units resume service after repairing faults
In recent weeks, the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant, located in the western province of Matanzas, the largest in the country, also suffered an unscheduled shutdown due to breakdowns, a situation that forced the UNE to schedule interruptions in the electrical service of up to three hours in a row in some adjoining territories, points out the aforementioned medium.
This situation forced the generator sets located in the west of the island to start up, and to allocate a large batch of gasoline for it, which, according to the Cuban government, caused the lack of fuel at the gas stations and the long queues that were generated to buy it, especially in the capital.
Efe / OnCuba.
