OMM Redaksiyası
Cuba fully restored its national electricity grid after an extensive blackout that cut power across the island, state authorities announced on Sunday.
The National Electric Union said technicians reconnected the country’s transmission infrastructure at 7:56 p.m. on Saturday (2356 GMT), according to a post on “X”, the US social media company.
Generation remains below demand
Solar photovoltaic facilities produced 985 megawatt-hours during the recovery operation, the utility said. That figure was lower than in previous days because of the procedures required to reconnect the grid.
By early Sunday, electricity generation had reached 1,160 megawatts, compared with demand of 2,673 megawatts. The shortfall left 1,510 megawatts of consumption affected.
Evening demand was expected to peak at 3,200 megawatts, while available capacity was projected at 1,160 megawatts. This would create an estimated deficit of 2,040 megawatts and affect about 2,070 megawatts of consumption during peak hours.
Power plants face breakdowns and maintenance
The state utility reported continuing boiler and generating-unit failures at several major thermoelectric plants. These included unit eight at the Mariel thermoelectric power plant, the central block at Guiteras, unit two at Felton and unit three at Rente.
Scheduled maintenance had also taken unit three at Santa Cruz offline, along with unit five at the Nuevitas and Rente facilities.
Cuba has faced persistent electricity instability, fuel shortages and recurring blackouts. Havana attributes the crisis to deteriorating infrastructure and what it describes as severe US economic blockades that restrict fuel imports, access to essential spare parts and foreign investment.
