The Electric Union of Cuba (UNE) reported that “there are no forecasts for damages to the service due to a lack of generation” this Saturday on the Island, since the availability of energy is higher than the forecast demand.
This announcement would not be news if it were not for the complex electricity situation that the Caribbean country has been going through in recent weeks, due to the constant breakdowns and maintenance work in several of the generating plants, which have caused prolonged power cuts, both unforeseen and scheduled. .
Given this scenario, the UNE maintains a daily report on the status of the National Electroenergetic System (SEN), the thermoelectric plants with breaks or reincorporated into service, and the forecast availability for the day.
In the one corresponding to today’s session, the entity assured this morning that “the availability of the SEN at 07:00 hours is 2,158 MW and the demand is 2,025 MW with the entire system in service. If the expected conditions are maintained during the day, there are no forecasts for service damage due to a generation capacity deficit.”
The same referred to the so-called peak hours, when the maximum energy demand is reached, and for which he estimated “an availability of 2,640 MW and a maximum demand of 2,550 MW, for a reserve of 90 MW.” This should, at least in theory, avoid annoying blackouts during this time on the Island, unless some unforeseen situation, such as a new break in a plant, affects electricity generation in the country.
This improvement seems to have been due to the entry into operation of unit 4 of the Antonio Maceo thermoelectric power plant (CTE), in Santiago de Cuba, with 60 MW, which, after having gone out of service due to breakdowns, was reconnected to the SEN this Friday, in accordance with the official newspaper Granma.
However, the situation continues to be delicate, because as the UNE acknowledges in its most recent part, units 6 and 7 of the CTE Máximo Gómez, unit 3 of the CTE Ernesto Guevara and units 4 and 5 of the CTE Diez de Octubre, while the unit of the CTE Otto Parellada and unit 2 of the CTE Lidio Ramón Pérez are maintained under maintenance.
In addition, in distributed generation —produced by the so-called generator sets, which work with Diesel— “1093 MW are unavailable due to breakdown and 192 MW are undergoing maintenance”.
For all of the above, states the UNE, “all measures to restrict consumption in the state sector are implemented.”
Cuban authorities they have recognized the “complex” and “unstable” situation of electricity generation on the island, which causes discomfort in the population and was one of the triggers for last year’s anti-government protests.
The obsolescence of the generating plants, the use of the heaviest and most corrosive national crude, and the difficulties in having “the timely and necessary financing” to carry out the required maintenance, are among the causes of a problem that has been getting worse in recent years. recent years, and that requires the programming of power cuts due to the impossibility of covering the demand.
