{"id":257236,"date":"2022-09-01T14:14:43","date_gmt":"2022-09-01T18:14:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=257236"},"modified":"2022-09-01T14:14:43","modified_gmt":"2022-09-01T18:14:43","slug":"some-background-info-to-understand-the-protests-in-nuevitas-and-other-municipalities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/cuba\/some-background-info-to-understand-the-protests-in-nuevitas-and-other-municipalities\/","title":{"rendered":"Some background info to understand the protests in Nuevitas (and other municipalities)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Long before reaching Nuevitas, the chimney of the Diez de Octubre thermoelectric plant tells the traveler the exact location of the city. On clear days when the plant works at full capacity, its smoke is visible from more than 30 kilometers away, as a representation of the industrious spirit that in other times animated this population in the northeast of <\/span>Camag\u00fcey<\/b><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

A single one of the Diez de Octubre units could largely cover the 16 megawatts\/hour of electricity that Nuevitas requires at its consumption peaks. The hundreds of workers at the plant and their families know it, and practically every last Nuevitas resident. However, since April \u2014 at the beginning of the current electricity crisis \u2014 until mid-July, Nuevitas and the rest of the Camag\u00fcey municipalities had their blackouts scheduled between 5:00 in the afternoon and 5:00 in the morning. On the opposite schedule, the power cuts corresponded to the main city.<\/span><\/p>\n

Under this two-block scheme, the province aimed to cut its consumption in half, from 150 to 75 megawatts\/hour.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe twelve hours of blackout were not always met, especially on weekends, but 8 or 10 hours without power are enough to do away with any family plans. Much more so if they are in the afternoon and at night,\u201d a Nuevitas resident in the \u201cmicros\u201d (microdistricts), the district of buildings that went up in the 1980s to house industrial and port workers, told me. Many of her neighbors have spent months alternating the torrid nights without electricity with the demanding work shifts at the \u201cthermo.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Trying to respond to popular dissent, in July the Camag\u00fcey electricity enterprise implemented a new <\/span>blackout<\/b><\/a> schedule, with two six-hour blackouts for the main city (between 5:00 and 11:00 a.m., and 5:00 and 11:00 p.m.) and the municipalities (from 11:00 to 5:00 at both times). The 12 hours of daily disconnections for each block should be enough to continue halving the province\u2019s electricity consumption and for night blackouts not to occur only in the municipalities.<\/span><\/p>\n

But even that schedule has been difficult to meet due to the constant \u201cdeficits in generation capacity\u201d on the island. These deficits have almost always been covered with \u201cunscheduled interruptions\u201d in the municipalities, at least in the case of Camag\u00fcey.<\/span><\/p>\n

Electric system in Cuba. Complications at least until December 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n