Santiago de Cuba Shuts Down: Just 4 Hours of Power a Day

Hospitals disconnected from the grid

The province of Santiago de Cuba is approaching zero energy generation and receives one-tenth of what it needs.

By 14ymedio

HAVANA TIMES – The population of Santiago de Cuba requests help in the face of a more dramatic energy crisis than in the rest of the country. The province, the second most populous of the Island, is currently suffering the worst situation due to lack of electricity, with a daily demand of 200 megawatts (MW) and a generation of between 20 and 30, according to the Electric Union (UNE), which yesterday announced radical measures that include stopping the rotation plan and only supplying between three and four hours of power to homes.

In order to give that ridiculously low amount of electricity to the residential sector, it will be necessary to turn off the prioritized circuits, including in hospitals, which will work with generators. The information, in addition to the UNE report and the local press, was provided by the managers of the “key sectors of the economy” to the “community agencies and the population of several localities” of the province “in an effort to bring truthful and updated information.”

“The sustained and high deficit causes an adjustment of the electricity service. Among other measures, the prioritized circuits in which the hospitals are located (they work with generators) are temporarily turned off in order to benefit the residential sector with four hours of electricity,” says a note published in the newspaper Sierra Maestra.

The information specifies that there are nine thermal plants out of service in the country, leaving Santiago with a deficit of between 160 and 170 MW at peak time, and a generation of 20 to 30 MW, “which is equivalent to the demand of the prioritized circuits and part of the water supply.”

The national report issued this Sunday by the UNE placed the expected deficit at the national level at 1,421 MW, an amount lower than the 1,510 announced the previous day, culminating in a week in which more than 1,000 MW were missing every day despite the fact that the temperatures were not particularly warm. Part of western Cuba was disconnected from the National Electric System (SEN) until Tuesday.

Yesterday, the situation of casualties in the Cuban electricity network was catastrophic. Out of service due to breakdown are unit 5 of the Mariel thermoelectric plant, unit 6 of the Nuevitas, unit 2 of the Felton and units 3 and 6 of Rente. The latter, located in Santiago de Cuba, also has unit 5 down for maintenance, which leaves half of its six blocks without generation. In addition, the Erin Sultan Turkish floating power plant (patana) located in the province, with a capacity of 130 MW, is not running due to fuel shortages, which leaves the east of the Island in a situation of extreme precariousness.

Unit 2 of the thermal power plant of Santa Cruz del Norte and units 3 and 4 of Cienfuegos are also out of the SEN for maintenance, as are 49 distributed generation power plants – due to the lack of fuel – that provide 287 MW, and the Regla patana (54 MW) and the Moa Diesel Power Plant (150 MW), for a total of 558 MW. During peak hours the entry of unit 6 of Nuevitas, the engines of Moa, two others from the patanas of Melones and Regla (both in Havana) was expected.

Although Holguín, Guantanamo and Granma are also suffering long power cuts, the demand – due to its population – is much higher in Santiago, leaving the province in a situation very close to zero power generation, since it receives one-tenth of its need. Given this, the authorities have asked provincial leaders to keep the population informed on a daily basis in order to “organize life around the new electrical allocation schedule.”

The report has not received any comment, contrary to the barrage of angry responses that Beatriz Johnson Urrutia, first secretary of the Communist Party in Santiago, received after reporting the situation on her Facebook account with a message asking for “much solidarity and empathy.”

“How long will this abuse last? If you can’t solve the problems of the people, resign your positions and ask any international country for help. You are forcing Cubans to emigrate. This is not the Cuba for which so many people died. José Martí said that when the people emigrate their leaders are superfluous,” wrote a man in Santiago.

Although there is apparent understanding, with some thanking the authorities for the information to be able to organize themselves, those who claim for the umpteenth time the inequality between the Island’s East and West in the distribution of power did not take long to arrive. “Why ask for empathy when we don’t all suffer in the same way. Why does Havana, which consumes the most electricity in the country, have cuts for only two hours in the morning? Aren’t we the same? Aren’t we Cubans? What we are not is equitable. Check for yourselves,” he reproaches.

More than 300 comments crowd the official’s page. Some ask for explanations of what happens to the oil that arrives or why, definitively, the country does not surrender to any foreign power. “It’s not enough for anything. That’s not an achievement, it’s a backwardness and a big one. And the ships that came from Mexico: where are they, for God’s sake? Let this country be taken over by Russia or the United States. All I know is that this doesn’t work anymore,” another lamented.

Santiago de Cuba, one of the provinces least prone to protest – “the cradle of the Revolution” – writes a user who demands respect for the territory. The city has taken to the streets on several occasions in the last two years due to the lack of power. In 2022, in the Luis Dagnes neighborhood, in the Altamira Popular Council, a group of demonstrators raised their voices against the Government for a situation similar to the current one, with four hours of electricity daily, causing the intervention of Johnson and, later, of the police.

The same thing happened at the end of October in the San Pedrito neighborhood, when several neighbors took to the streets to ask for the power to be restored after the island-wide breakdown of the SEN that occurred a month ago today. The passage of Hurricane Rafael, on November 6 with a category 3 through the west of the Island, left the second total collapse of the system in just 15 days.

The shortage of fuel – despite the fleets of ships from friendly countries – and the catastrophic conditions of the thermoelectric plants, which are now well past their useful lives, keep the energy situation in a state of extraordinary fragility. This was recognized by the Minister of Energy and Mines himself, Vicente de la O Levy, just 18 days ago. “The system is weak; there is a very large generation deficit,” he summarized, to no one’s surprise.

Translated by Regina Anavy for Translating Cuba.

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