The electricity generation in Cuba can’t recover. Although the number of units out of service is now lower than on other occasions, a “high fuel unavailability” significantly reduces the capacities of diesel and fuel engines.
This was confirmed by Lázaro Guerra Hernández, general director of electricity of the Ministry of Energy and Mines, when reporting on the island’s energy scenario this Tuesday.
“We have very little distributed generation operating at the moment due to lack of fuel,” said the official in a television intervention this morning.
According to Guerra Hernández, the impact not only affects the diesel plants, but also the Moa fuel plant, in Holguín, which will only have two engines operational, a situation “that will not change during the day,” he said.
According to the Electrical Union (UNE)the 95 plants stopped due to lack of diesel will not come into operation either. In total, almost 1000 MW will stop being generated today due to the shortage of fuel and lubricants.
Another high deficit overnight
Furthermore, another 600 MW will be lost due to limitations of the thermal units in operation, while five blocks are out due to breakdowns or maintenance.
Among the latter is Mariel 5, which will undergo “light maintenance” after leaving because “the generation it had was already very low,” according to Guerra Hernández.
With these conditions, at noon the maximum impact expected by the UNE will be 950 MW, largely thanks to the expected contribution from the new photovoltaic solar parks.
However, without the parks already in the equation at night the deficit will grow rapidly along with the increase in demand and the impact should reach 1800 MW.
This is a figure slightly higher than yesterday at that time (1,731 MW) and almost double the maximum forecast for daytime hours, which, furthermore, could increase if a breakage occurs or if demand exceeds official estimates.
