Cuba still has no electricity relief: more than 20 hours of blackouts and a 1510 MW deficit

The energy crisis in Cuba continues unabated. The National Electric System (SEN) suffered disruptions throughout yesterday and early Saturday morning, with a peak deficit of 1500 MW recorded at 21:50 p.m., coinciding with peak demand.

Nuevitas and Felton out of service

The prolonged outage was aggravated by the unexpected shutdown of Unit 5 of the Nuevitas Thermoelectric Power Plant (CTE). This failure follows the already known outage at Unit 2 of the Felton CTE, both of which were out of service.

Key units such as Mariel Unit 5, Santa Cruz Unit 2, Cienfuegos Unit 4, and Renté Unit 5 are also undergoing maintenance. Additionally, 401 MW are out of service due to thermal limitations, further complicating the situation.

Structural deficit and compromised distributed generation

At 07:00 a.m. on June 7, generation availability was only 1949 MW compared to a demand of 2895 MW, leaving an immediate deficit of 946 MW. During peak hours, an even larger deficit of up to 1510 MW is estimated.

Distributed generation plants also face serious obstacles.

A total of 68 plants are shut down due to fuel shortages, resulting in a loss of 534 MW.

Added to this is an additional 76 MW due to oil shortages, bringing the total lost capacity to 610 MW in that system alone.

Solar energy: limited contribution

The 16 new solar photovoltaic parks contributed 1463 MWh the previous day, with a peak power of 387 MW.

Although the number of facilities has grown, the contribution still does not nearly cover the current deficit.

Trinidad works to recuperate your capacity

The Trinidad power plant, owned by the Sancti Spíritus-based Generator Maintenance and Group Company (EMGEF), is operating at 50% capacity. Only two engines are active.

The arrival of a new 3.85 MW engine and the repair of a similar one are expected, allowing the plant to reach the 15 MW capacity for which it was designed, presumably in September.

Preo perspectivescupbefore

Despite efforts to reactivate some units, such as the tentative startup of the 5 MW Nuevitas Unit 61, the gap between electricity supply and demand remains abysmal. The immediate outlook shows no signs of significant improvement.