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Cuba’s electrical system completely failed this Friday, the Ministry of Energy and Mines (Minem) announced on social networks, causing the accident. Complete blackout on the island. “This morning
Cuba’s electrical system completely failed this Friday, the Ministry of Energy and Mines (Minem) announced on social networks, causing the accident. Complete blackout on the island.
“This morning at 11:07, due to the conditions in which the SEN (national electricity system) operates, it was completely switched off,” Minem said, adding that work was underway to “restore” it.
According to the ministry, the collapse of the system occurred as a result problem at the Guiteras Thermal Power Plantone of the largest in the country, which forced technicians to remove it from the system.
This thermoelectric power plant, as reported this Thursday by the Electrotechnical Union (UNE), already required maintenance within a few days after running all summer and operating for more than four decades.
In September 2022, a similar “zero production” situation occurred after Category 3 Hurricane Ian passed through the western tip of the island. This caused serious imbalance and left the entire country in darkness. Recovery took several days.
Cuba is plunged into a serious energy crisis due to fuel shortages (due to a lack of foreign currency to import it) for its engines and power plants, as well as the aging of its seven Soviet-made thermal power plants and lack of investment and maintenance.
This Friday, UNE expected that at the moment of maximum demand there would be a power outage that would simultaneously affect 49% of the country.
This is the second-highest percentage of expected impact this year, after a high of about 51% was set this Thursday. At the beginning of the year, rates of more than 40% were already recorded.
Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero unusually appeared on television this Thursday to talk about the current “national emergency” and announced measures such as the paralysis of all non-essential government activities such as hospitals and food production centers.
Frequent power cuts are crippling the Cuban economy, which shrank 1.9% in 2023 and is still below 2019 levels, and are causing social unrest in a society hit by an economic crisis that has worsened in recent years.
Frequent power outages have also catalyzed recent anti-government protests of some size on the island, including on July 11, 2021—the largest in decades—and on March 17 in Santiago de Cuba (east) and other localities. . (EFE)
Source: Aristegui Noticias
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