The Cuban Electrical Union (UNE) announced a severe shortfall in electricity generation this Thursday, forecasting only 1,760 MW available during peak hours against a maximum demand of 3,020 MW. In an official statement shared on social media, the UNE highlighted that this situation would result in a 1,260 MW deficit and potentially affect up to 1,330 MW across the nation.
As of 7:00 a.m. today, the National Electric System (SEN) reported an availability of 1,730 MW, while demand reached 2,450 MW, leaving 592 MW of capacity offline. It is anticipated that in the afternoon, interruptions due to generation deficits could reach 950 MW.
Efforts were made yesterday to restore the Western area of the SEN, but the service was hindered by limited generation capacity throughout the day. The peak impact recorded was 1,218 MW at 6:50 p.m., predominantly affecting provinces from Matanzas to Guantánamo, with interruptions extending into the early morning hours.
Compounding the issue, Hurricane Rafael caused damage to electrical networks, adding 175 MW of disruptions during peak hours, affecting areas such as Pinar del Río, Artemisa, Havana, and Mayabeque.
Significant Plant Outages and Fuel Limitations
Several units are currently out of service due to malfunctions, including Unit 5 at the CTE Mariel and Unit 4 at the CTE Cienfuegos. Additionally, there are thermal generation limitations amounting to 341 MW and fuel constraints impacting 38 distributed generation plants, with a total of 257 MW unavailable.
During a regular television broadcast, Lázaro Guerra Hernández, UNE's general director of Electricity, elaborated on the service outages, noting that the most significant impact was in Artemisa and Pinar del Río due to the damage wrought by Rafael. In contrast, power cuts in other provinces were primarily attributed to generation deficits.