The electrical infrastructure of the eastern zone, which was severely impacted by the Hurricane Melissais recovering as the recovery work progresses.
However, along with the increase in people with access to electricity in that region, the costs have also increased. blackouts due to generation deficit throughout the country.
According to data released yesterday During a meeting of the National Defense Council, about 85% of the east of the island had been reconnected to the electrical grid. Of those five provinces, Las Tunas already had service throughout its territory.
This morning, the Ministry of Energy and Mines updated the data on their networks. According to them, the recovery was going at 99.05% in Guantánamo, 96.25% in Granma and 93.54% in Holguín. Santiago, with 60.07% reconnected, continues to be the province most behind.
However, this recovery does not mean that all customers in those areas have stable electricity service as most people in the rest of the country do not have it in the midst of the prolonged energy crisis suffered by the island.
This Monday, the maximum impact outside the territories that remain in the dark due to Melissa was 1,523 MW, in the rope of what was initially estimated by the Electrical Union (UNE) and similar to that of the previous day, although already above what was reported in previous days.
And for today the figure will be even higher in the nighttime peak: 1,735 MW, according to the official forecast, although during the day the estimated impact will not reach 1,000 MW.
Thermoelectric plants stopped and lack of fuel
The reasons for this increase are no mystery. They are the same ones that have been causing long blackouts throughout the island for several years: the repeated breakdowns of thermoelectric plants and the lack of fuel for the distributed generation engines.
This Tuesday the UNE reports seven thermal units out of service, including two whose synchronization had been reported yesterday by the entity itself. In addition, the limitations of the plants in operation cause the loss of 472 MW.
Problems with fuel keep 84 distributed generation plants and the Fuel del Mariel engine plant shut down. Added to this are other effects due to lack of lubricants, which in total brings the MW affected by both causes to 891.
None of those MW will be recovered during the day, although the entry of Renté unit 3 is expected for the night. If so, availability will barely rise to 1,435 MW, that is, 300 MW below the impact predicted by the UNE.
Meanwhile, another 111 MW remained affected by the damage from the hurricane in the eastern zone and another 50 were in the province of Granma “due to high transfers and low voltage in the area.”
