This Saturday, all of Cuba was once again left completely without electricity after the failure of the recovery process of the National Electric System (SEN) that began the day before after the total blackout that caused a breakdown in a thermoelectric plant.
Then the process of re-energizing and starting up the SEN began, gradually creating some areas with current in certain parts of the country, with the aim of expanding them and connecting them together to be able to reach the thermoelectric plants and restart them. But a new “total disconnection” put an end to the small advances.
“Today at 6.15 am the total disconnection of the National Electroenergy System occurred. The Electrical Union is working on its reestablishment,” the state-run Electrical Union (UNE) reported on social networks.
The SEN collapsed this Friday morning due to a breakdown at the Guiteras thermoelectric plant, one of the main generators in the country, as explained by the Ministry of Energy and Mines (Minem). A “zero national energy coverage” event occurred, a complete blackout across the country.
The situation was already an “energy emergency”, as the country’s president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, had said this Thursday, after the energy crisis worsened in recent weeks. This week there had been days with impact rates of 50%.
For this reason, the Government had paralyzed all non-essential state work activities since Friday, from the ministers’ agenda to schools.
Díaz-Canel also said that “there will be no rest” until electrical service is restored on the island and stressed that the situation is “tense” and complex,” according to state television news.
The SEN is in a very precarious state due to the fuel deficit – the result of the lack of foreign currency to import it – and the frequent breakdowns in obsolete thermoelectric plants, with four decades of operation and chronic lack of investments.
Blackouts have been common for several years, but since the end of August the situation has worsened to reach levels similar to those of the worst moments, such as the beginning of this year and July and August of 2021 and 2022.
In recent years, the Cuban Government has rented several floating power plants to mitigate the lack of generation capacity.
Frequent blackouts damage the Cuban economy – which in 2023 contracted 1.9% and is still below 2019 levels, according to official data – and drive social discontent in a society affected by an economic crisis worsened in the last years.
They have also triggered anti-government protests, including those on July 11, 2021 – the largest in decades – and those on March 17 in Santiago de Cuba (east) and other locations.
Havana / EFE
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