14ymedio, Havana, January 5, 2024 — Bad news for the year’s energy forecast. The collapse of a pole in front of the Unión Cuba Petróleo Company (Cupet) at the exit of the Santa Clara Subplant, in the province of Villa Clara, is the first incident described by the authorities as a “large-scale electrical breakdown.”
The event occurred at 3 in the afternoon on line 861, 33kV, and left six circuits of the main city without electricity. According to Yadier Ruiz Sánchez, director of the load dispatch of the Electric Company in the province, after 4 in the afternoon the service had been restored in half of them, with three others still affected, the 5th, the 9th and the 17th.
The broken post was not the only problem. According to the local press, “when service was returned to these circuits, a technical problem also occurred in the corresponding substation,” so repairs had to continue during the night. The workers spent the early morning replacing the pole and, at the same time, “regenerating the damaged disconnectors,” said the manager, who announced that the work would continue as long as necessary.
“The circuits that already have the service may have a blackout again precisely to carry out the synchronization itself”
“Once both breakdowns have been resolved, the reconnection process may take some time, so as not to cause other accidents, and the circuits that already have the service may have a blackout again precisely to carry out the synchronization itself,” added Ruiz Sánchez.
“We started the year well,” was the general reaction among Santa Clara residents to the information offered by the different channels of the Electrical Union of Cuba (UNE) and Villa Clara’s citizen and media portals. “The maintenance that leaves us without power for more than six hours, what are they for?” asked a customer. “Isn’t the entire circuit checked? Because not long ago there
