“Between 11 in the morning and one in the afternoon they have to disconnect the central electricity, zero consumption between those hours.” This is the information that state companies in the province of Sancti Spíritus are receiving. The measure, implemented a few days ago, aims to drastically reduce energy spending in search of a desperate palliative for the fuel deficit Cuba is suffering.
“Now the orientation, unlike other times when they asked us to turn off some lights and air conditioners, is that we remove the catao center to avoid any consumption between those hours”, details 14ymedio an employee of a branch of the Cimex Corporation, managed by the Cuban military and which deals with part of the retail trade in the province.
“In our office, from 11 in the morning until one in the afternoon, the central electricity must be cut off, which complicates all our work, which involves using computers, printing invoices and doing other tasks for the that it is essential to use electrical equipment”, laments the worker.
In a nearby office of the state telecommunications monopoly, Etecsa, the scenario is repeated. “When they told us last year that we had to turn off the lights and air conditioners at that time, people sought their solutions,” says a young employee who prefers to remain anonymous. “In order not to have to suffer from the heat, the workers brought our own fans.”
“We closed and we did not accept more clients at that time, but we had to continue inside the office, which is hellish due to the heat, especially in the summer”
Instead of saving electricity in the regulatory two-hour blackout, in many of these places consumption remained unchanged. “We went from using two splits to have eight or nine fans connected. What was saved on one side was spent on the other,” acknowledges the man, who works in the area of attention to the population.
“We closed and we did not accept more clients at that time, but we had to continue inside the office, which is hellish due to the heat, especially in the summer,” he says. “It seems that they realized that not much electricity was being saved and now the administrator will be in charge of removing the central current. Nobody will be able to connect their fan or charge their mobile.”
The measure joins others that have been taken in the province and throughout Cuba due to the fuel crisis that the island is going through. “We have a greatly reduced fleet of merchandise delivery trucks, we have had to change the supply schedules the stores and now we are not going to be able to do anything for two hours each day”, the employee sums up the situation in the Cimex subsidiary in Spiritus.
Sancti Spíritus, a territory that connects the flow of vehicles arriving from the west to the east of the Island and vice versa, has experienced a notable decrease in traffic. “Now you spend hours getting from the city of Sancti Spíritus to Trinidad because the drivers don’t have oil,” laments Mirna, 59, with a family divided between the provincial capital and the beautiful Valle de los Ingenios.
Instead of saving electricity in the regulatory two-hour blackout, in many of these places consumption remained unchanged
“Sometimes I spend so many days without seeing my daughter, as if we lived in different provinces. If you look at the map, her house is right there. There are no cars or trucks to get there. We are incommunicado within the own province,” he adds.
Mirna does not seem very concerned about the repercussions that the new energy saving measure in the state sector will have on the lives of the people of Sancti Spiritus. “Total, for how little they are useful,” she considers. “It’s been a long time here that you can’t do paperwork or procedures at that time, so it’s more of the same,” she concludes.
Next Monday, Mirna’s husband, with an administrative position in a community office in the city, will have the task of “lowering the catao” electrician from his work center. “He can’t do anything else, it’s what he’s been told and it’s what he has to do, but he already told me that at that time he’s not going to stay inside the premises, which is an oven. He says he’s going to go sit in the park.”
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