Cuba: Power Outages Are Prolonged Due to Delays in the Energy Recovery Process
A Cuban bookstore serves its customers in the midst of the blackout, Oct. 2024. X/ @xeunoticias
October 19, 2024 Hour: 9:29 am
The Caribbean nation is unable to purchase fuel or modernize its electrical machinery due to the U.S. blockade.
On Saturday, Cuba once again experienced a total power outage after the recovery process of the National Electric System (SEN), initiated the day before following a blackout caused by a failure at a thermoelectric plant, failed.
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The process of re-energizing the SEN was then initiated, gradually restoring power to certain areas of the country with the goal of expanding and connecting them to eventually reach the thermoelectric plants and restart them. However, a new total disconnection thwarted the progress that had been made.
“Today at 6:15 a.m., the National Electrical System experienced a total disconnection. The Electric Union is working on restoring it,” the state-owned Electric Union (UNE) reported on social media.
On Friday morning, the SEN collapsed due to a failure at the Guiteras thermoelectric plant, one of the country’s main power generators. This caused a complete blackout across the country. The situation had already been labeled as an “energy emergency,” as President Miguel Diaz-Canel had said on Thursday.
This week, the supply of electricity has been reduced by up to 50 percent on some days. As a result, authorities halted all non-essential state labor activities starting Friday, including ministries and schools. Diaz-Canel also stated that “there will be no rest” until electric service on the island is restored and emphasized that the situation is “tense and complex.”
Due to the U.S. blockade, which restricts the influx of foreign currency to Cuba, the SEN is in a very precarious state because of fuel shortages and frequent failures in thermoelectric plants, which have been operating non-stop for over four decades.
Power outages have been common for several years, but since the end of August, the situation has worsened, reaching levels similar to the worst moments, such as in 2021 and 2022.
In recent years, the Cuban government has rented several floating power plants to alleviate the lack of generating capacity. Frequent blackouts are damaging Cuba’s economy, which contracted by 1.9 percent in 2023 and is still below the levels of 2019.
teleSUR/ JF Source: EFE
