Cuba Makes Progress in Restoring Electricity After Hurricane

"Considerable progress is being made in the recovery of power lines affected by the hurricane to provide service to the capital of Cuba, an army of dedicated people is working uninterruptedly to restore in the shortest possible time," UNE reported on the social network Twitter.

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UNE's technical director, Lázaro Guerra, added in the televised forum Mesa Redonda that the system is still fragile and that there is very little generation capacity in the country, despite the gradual incorporation of several thermoelectric plants that contribute to the collapsed national grid.

According to García, at present, only the floating power plants of Regla (west), Energás, and Felton (east) are generating. However, other thermoelectric plants started their start-up the day after Tuesday night's collapse, leaving the energy generation nationwide at zero.

Several territories in Cuba have been without electricity for more than 24 hours, and in others, the service is intermittent, with brief periods of light between extended blackouts.

García explained that, after Tuesday's collapse, the authorities began to restore the network by implementing micro-systems for generation, the initial objective of which was to guarantee energy for the start-up of large thermoelectric plants and to promote interconnection.

Hurricane Ian hit Cuba with category 3 on the Saffir Simpson scale, 5 being the most devastating and mainly affecting the lines in the west of the country, particularly the 220,000-volt circuit between the provinces of Pinar del Río and Artemisa.