Following a disconnection of the National Electric System on Sunday afternoon, Cuba's Electric Union (UNE) announced a temporary strategy to partition the power supply into several independent regional systems. This initiative aims to ensure the rest of the system remains stable in the event of future failures, as reported by state journalist Lázaro Manuel Alonso on Facebook this Monday morning, citing the state entity.
In the western provinces up to Havana, electricity will largely be supplied by the Mariel thermoelectric plant, supported by a floating power plant in the vicinity, fuel-based generation groups, other distributed generation in the western region, and the Santa Cruz thermoelectric plant. Meanwhile, the provinces of Matanzas, Cienfuegos, and Villa Clara will receive power from the Guiteras thermoelectric plant, supplemented with distributed generation within those provinces.
Central and Eastern Regional Power Solutions
For the central part of the country, the remaining provinces will get electricity from Nuevitas and additional distributed generation sites. In the eastern region, power will depend on the Renté thermoelectric plant, a floating plant in Santiago de Cuba bay, and facilities in Moa. The Felton plant is also expected to soon contribute to the power supply in this area.
This regional segmentation of the electric system is intended to mitigate the impacts of future failures and boost energy stability across each area amid a nationwide energy crisis, as concluded by the official journalist based on UNE's information. Notably, the Electric Union has not updated the situation for over 12 hours at the time of this report.
Public Outcry and Restoration Efforts
In the comments section of the post, residents from the province of Mayabeque and the Playa municipality in Havana reported being without electricity for 72 hours. In another update, Alonso noted that "with the establishment of regional systems, electric service has been restored in several communities." He reiterated that according to the new strategy, "thermoelectric plants, along with distributed and floating generation, now supply energy to the territories they are located in and neighboring provinces."
A new disconnection of the National Electric System (SEN) occurred on Sunday afternoon following a “trigger” at the 10 de Octubre thermoelectric plant in Nuevitas, Camagüey. Without providing further details, the regime claimed it was tirelessly working to restore the National Electric System. Since last Friday at noon, when the SEN experienced a complete outage, Cubans have endured a grueling and prolonged general blackout that has paralyzed the nation.
Despite promises from the regime to resolve the issue, the crisis has intensified. These “triggers” have heightened tension within the SEN, which oscillates between total or partial collapses, leaving thousands of Cubans without power. On Saturday morning, during the SEN's recovery process following Friday's total blackout, the system crashed again. The power supply, which had reached a few thousand users and was aiding the restart of thermoelectric plants via distributed generation, vanished, along with hopes of overcoming the crisis.
That same day, Matanzas province was plunged into a general blackout after a “trigger” occurred during the start-up of the electrical microsystem. Significant malfunctions have also been reported at Unit 3 of the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes thermoelectric plant in Cienfuegos and generation block No. 3 of the Antonio Maceo thermoelectric plant, also known as Renté, in Santiago de Cuba. The latter incident resulted in the collapse of a microsystem affecting Santiago de Cuba and Guantánamo provinces, leaving them without electricity service.