Cuba will suffer simultaneous blackouts in up to a third of the island

Cuba will suffer simultaneous blackouts in up to 29.6% of the country this Saturday due to the combination of breakdowns in some infrastructure and the “unavailability” of fuel, official sources explained.

The island has thus spent more than a week with daily impact rates – the percentage of maximum demand that generation is not able to satisfy – of between 20 and 34%, which weighs down the economy and generates social unrest.

After years of serious difficulties in ensuring supply -especially in the summers of 2021 and 2022-, the energy situation had stabilized in recent months, but with the turn of the year, large specific drops in generation capacity have been recorded.

The daily report of the state company Unión Eléctrica (UNE), dependent on the Ministry of Energy and Minescalculates for the time of highest consumption, in the evening, an electrical generation capacity of 1,970 megawatts (MW) and a maximum demand of 2,700 MW.

In this way, the deficit – the difference between supply and demand – will be 730 MW and the impact – the circuits that will be disconnected – will reach 800 MW during “peak hours”.

The Cuban electrical system is in a precarious situation, evident in the frequent failures and breakages of its obsolete land plants, due to the chronic lack of investments and maintenance.

The lack of foreign currency from the State has also hindered the import of fuel, which also affects energy production, which largely depends on them.

The government of Cuba In the last five years, it has rented up to seven floating power plants to the Turkish company Karpowership to alleviate the lack of generation capacity, a quick but temporary, polluting and expensive solution.

The frequent cuts in the electricity supply damage the economy – which in 2023 contracted between 1 and 2% – and fuel social discontent in a society already seriously affected by an economic crisis for three years.

Blackouts have been one of the triggers for protests in recent years, including those on July 11, 2021, the largest in decades.