The ongoing struggles of Cuba's National Electric Service (SEN) to meet electricity demand have led to continuous outages, as reported by the Electric Union (UNE) this past Saturday. The power supply was disrupted for the entirety of Friday and continued into the early hours of Saturday. At 7:10 PM on Friday, the generation shortfall reached a significant 1,430 MW, even outside of the peak usage hours. Additionally, Guantánamo experienced a 4 MW outage due to the recent hurricane, according to a statement shared on Facebook.
Cuban Power Grid Under Strain
The prospects for improvement on Saturday were bleak. The UNE anticipated available capacity during peak hours to be around 1,795 MW, while the projected demand was 3,100 MW, resulting in a deficit of 1,305 MW. The forecast indicated that the central-eastern regions of the country would be heavily impacted, with a total shortfall of 1,375 MW expected during peak hours. This is largely due to numerous power plants being offline or lacking fuel.
By 7:00 AM on Saturday, the SEN's available capacity stood at 1,695 MW, against a demand of 2,360 MW. This discrepancy left a shortfall of 723 MW, leading to widespread blackouts across the island.
Outages and Maintenance Issues
Several thermal power plants have been reported out of service due to breakdowns, including the CTE Mariel unit 5, CTE Santa Cruz unit 3, CTE Cienfuegos unit 4, CTE Nuevitas unit 5, and CTE Felton unit 2. Maintenance has sidelined other units such as CTE Santa Cruz unit 2, CTE Cienfuegos unit 3, CTE Felton unit 1, and CTE Renté unit 5.
Adding to the crisis, 62 distributed generation stations are inactive due to fuel shortages, losing an estimated 269 MW. Moreover, four engines at the Central of Moa and another four at the floating plant in Santiago de Cuba remain shut down, contributing to an additional 383 MW deficit in distributed generation.
Emergency Measures and Local Impact
The critical state of Cuba's SEN led to reports of emergency power cuts in various areas, including Havana and Villa Clara. Alarmingly, in Villa Clara, out of 164 circuits, 162 were without power, highlighting the severe impact of the ongoing energy crisis on daily life.