The breakdown in a high-voltage line that in a few days left the center and east of the country without service for the fourth time “must be resolved in the morning hours,” as confirmed this Thursday from the electrical union (UNE).
After midnight the entire system was in service, but at dawn this Thursday it was again interrupted to a large extent from Cienfuegos to Guantánamo because power transmission is being carried out, according to what was reported on national television by technical director of UNELazaro Guerra.
A few hours before, the general director of the UNE, Alfredo López Valdés, had explained that a group of distributed generation engines provided electricity service to vital centers such as hospitals in the areas affected by the blackout.
The reported interruption of electricity supply had nothing to do with the forest fire that caused two breakdowns in high-voltage lines and left at least nine Cuban provinces without power shortly before.
“It is not due to human error either,” said Guerra, who reiterated that the outage occurred again in the 220-kilovolt high-voltage line that links the provinces of Matanzas with Cienfuegos.
The Cuban electrical system is going through a precarious and complex situation, reflected last year in daily blackouts that lasted up to 12 hours in some regions and sometimes affected almost 40% of the country.
Among the causes are the age of the eight terrestrial thermoelectric plants with an average of more than 40 years in use, the lack of investments and the lack of fuel.
New failure of the electrical system in the center and east of Cuba
Blackouts have decreased significantly since the second half of December, and have remained at lower levels in the first weeks of 2023, with effects below 10% during peak demand hours.
This failure, however, represents the fourth drop in the SEN in more than half of the island and in a lapse of 10 days.
Efe/OnCuba.
