Cuba generates, on the third day after the total collapse of the electrical system last Friday, near One third of the average daily demand for electricity of the last week, according to data from the Ministry of Energy and Mines (Minem) published this Sunday and collated by EFE. According to the Director General of Electricity of the Minem, Lázaro Guerra, cited by the official press, the Caribbean country generates 935 megawatts (MW), less than a third of the 3,171 MW of average consumption in the week prior to the National Broach on Friday.
Guerra said that until Sunday morning, the state -owned company Unión Electric (UNE) has managed to connect – this does not mean that energy is generated throughout the line – from Havana to the most oriental tip From the island: Guantanamo. In the case of the capital province, 81 % of consumers continue without current.
In the last three national blackheads, registered in October, November y December Of 2024, the UNE began reactivating microsystems (fed by large generators who use fuel or diesel) and then interconnect them and take the current to the large plants to be able to turn them on and synchronize them with the National Electroenergetic System (SEN). So far, according to Minem and UNE, the current has been restored in very specific areas of almost all provinces of the country, mainly around what the authorities have called “vital centers”, as hospitals.
This complex process of uncertain advance – and sometimes with setbacks – extended for several days in all three cases. The “disconnection“Del Sen occurred around 20.15 local time (0:15 GMT) this Friday, following a breakdown in the tenmer substation, on the outskirts of Havana. This caused the chain output of several electric production units with a” important loss of loss of Generation in West of Cuba“And, subsequently, the” total fall “of the system, explained the Minem.
The frequent blackouts have the Cuban economy, which 1.9 % contracted in 2023 And it did not grow last year, according to estimates of the government itself. According to these figures, the GDP of the island remains below the 2019 levels and will not exceed this 2025, for which the Executive provides for an advance of the 1 %. The cuts also generate a strong social discontent and have been detonating in recent years of unusual protests on the island, such as the massive of July 11, 2021, those of the summer of 2022 in Havana y Nuevitas (east) or those of March 17, 2024 in Santiago de Cuba (East) and other locations.
