14ymedio, Havana, 9 March 2024 — The power blackouts in Cuba are reaching a record never seen in recent years. On Friday, the official press itself reported, “there was a deficit of electricity generation for 24 hours, and it has not been possible to restore the power this morning.” The maximum recorded yesterday, 1,566 megawatts at the time of maximum demand, is unprecedented since the energy crisis escalated two years ago.
For Saturday, the outlook is not much better: an availability of 1,600 MW and a demand of 2,550, which means an average impact of 1,300 MW.
The figures included in the statement of the UNE (Electric Union of Cuba) speak for themselves: 85 distributed generation plants, plus the Moa fuel plant and the Santiago de Cuba plant are out of service due to lack of fuel. There are also 16 plants “with low coverage.”
Thus, the citizens are desperate, and rumors of demonstrations run throughout the Island. The SEN (National Energy System) barely exceeded 1,000 MW when, in August 2022, mass protests broke out in Nuevitas, Camagüey.
“I imagine that those poor people who had only two hours of power must be on the verge of suicide”
The repression unleashed after the demonstrations – similar to what happened on 11 July 2021 – may explain why for the moment, the frustration is only expressed in complaints on social net