Even on Christmas Day, Cubans will face the grim reality of being without electricity in their homes, following prolonged outages the previous day that left many areas in the dark for over 12 hours. The Electric Union (UNE) has warned of potential service disruptions reaching up to 1280 MW during peak hours this Wednesday, particularly affecting the central-eastern region due to high energy transfers to that area.
According to a report shared on Facebook, the power service was disrupted on Tuesday due to a generation capacity deficit, starting at 4:13 am and continuing until 12:23 am the following day. The maximum outage recorded was 1416 MW at 6:20 pm, coinciding with peak demand hours.
As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, there were 371 MW reported as unavailable due to generation shortfalls. It is anticipated that this number could rise to 700 MW during midday.
Three units from the Felton and Renté thermoelectric plants are currently out of operation due to malfunctions, while four more from Santa Cruz, Cienfuegos, and Renté are undergoing maintenance. These thermal generation limitations amount to a shortfall of 293 MW.
Additionally, a lack of fuel has taken 78 distributed generation plants and 7 engines at the Moa plant offline, leading to a total loss of 562 MW due to this issue.
Understanding Cuba's Ongoing Energy Crisis
Why is there an electricity shortage in Cuba?
Cuba is experiencing electricity shortages due to a combination of aging infrastructure, lack of maintenance, and insufficient fuel supplies, which have led to frequent power outages.
Which regions in Cuba are most affected by the power outages?
The central-eastern regions of Cuba are particularly affected by power outages due to high energy transfer demands and limited local generation capacity.