Cuba suffers a new wave of power outages The world and science

Flag of CubaFrance Press agency

Published on 03/11/2024 at 19:32

Cuba recorded, on Monday (11), a large number of power outages due to a “deficit” in power generation, state company Unión Eléctrica reported, amid a new wave of outages while several thermal power plants undergo repairs or maintenance.

“It is estimated that there are large numbers of people affected, due to the shortage in generating capacity,” the company’s director, Alfredo Lopez Valdes, said on the social network X.

Union Eléctrica reported in February that the António Guiteras thermal power plant, the most important in the country, would stop operating for maintenance, while another manager indicated Monday on state television that other plants were partially operational.

According to the authorities, the demand for electricity on the island on Monday will reach 3,200 megawatts, but the company will only be able to generate 1,975 megawatts.

In the capital, Havana, with a population of 2.2 million, power outages are less frequent, but residents in many provinces complain of prolonged power outages.

Housewife Caridad Sanchez (38 years old), who lives in Camagüey province (central), confirmed to Agence France-Presse that the power usually stops around 10 a.m. and does not return until 9 p.m.

“There are no power outages here, but rather ‘lights,’” she says angrily, warning that “people are protesting because they are losing what little food they have.”

Meanwhile, in Holguin (east), “power outages last for 15 hours a day one day and nine hours the next,” says a septuagenarian who prefers to remain anonymous. He points out that in some neighborhoods, “people bang pots at night” as a form of protest.

At the end of last February, the authorities announced an “emergency system” that included banning the use of air conditioners in government work facilities, as well as “shutting down the operation of these offices 100%” “at peak times” and promoting remote work.

Cuba's electricity generation system consists of eight old thermal power plants, as well as generators and eight floating plants leased by the Turkish government, which have also been affected by the shortage of diesel fuel for operation.