{"id":312028,"date":"2024-10-28T13:53:42","date_gmt":"2024-10-28T17:53:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=312028"},"modified":"2024-10-28T13:53:42","modified_gmt":"2024-10-28T17:53:42","slug":"cubas-electric-power-system-the-paths-of-a-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/cuba\/economy\/cubas-electric-power-system-the-paths-of-a-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Cuba\u2019s Electric Power System: the paths of a crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last Friday, October 18, the Cuban Electric Power System collapsed. An \u201cunforeseen breakdown\u201d at the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant, the largest unitary generation block, caused <\/span>a \u201ctotal disconnection\u201d<\/span><\/a> that left the entire country in the dark.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was not the first time that something like this had happened in recent years. In September 2022, there had already been another general outage during the passage of Hurricane Ian. Only this time there was no hurricane hitting the island, at least not yet, as <\/span>Oscar would later arrive to further strain<\/b><\/a> the situation in the eastern tip of the island.<\/span><\/p>\n

It took almost five days and new <\/span>total<\/b><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>partial<\/b><\/a> power outages for the system to be <\/span>fully reconnected<\/span><\/a>. Hours and hours of continuous work by the electrical workers were necessary, as well as quite a few resources, while a large part of the country remained paralyzed, turned off, plunged into uncertainty.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, less than a day before the collapse, the government <\/span>had already declared<\/span><\/a> a \u201cnational power emergency\u201d in the midst of a new peak of blackouts and <\/span>record figures<\/span><\/a> in the generation deficit. Faced with this, it had announced a contingency plan, which included the paralysis of economic and other activities.<\/span><\/p>\n

The total disconnection then became like \u201cthe straw that broke the camel\u2019s back,\u201d the sad culmination of a debacle that had been on the way, not only in the last few weeks or months, but for years; foreseeable in the opinion of quite a few experts, despite the continuous plans and strategies announced by the authorities to deal with the prolonged crisis.<\/span><\/p>\n

How did it get to this point? What have been the paths of the collapse? What has happened in recent years that has accentuated the fragility of a key sector not only for Cuba, but for any country, for its economy and its people?<\/span><\/p>\n

Aside from the specific breakdown and the consistent imbalance in the technical values <\/span>\u200b\u200b<\/span>necessary for the balance of the system that led to its total disconnection, there is an unavoidable group of factors that have led to what happened.<\/span><\/p>\n

Below we will address several aspects, interconnected with each other, that portray the difficult panorama of the Cuban Electric Power System and explain as a whole the crisis that it is going through, the scene and catalyst of its recent collapse.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fall in power generation<\/b><\/p>\n

Power generation \u2014 that is, the Electric Power System\u2019s raison d\u2019etre \u2014 has been in free fall in recent years. Between 2018 and 2022 it was reduced by almost a quarter, according to <\/span>data published<\/span><\/a> last year, a dynamic that <\/span>has not been able to stop<\/span><\/a> since then and that has translated into a logical increase in blackouts as consumption has continued to grow.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Cuba imported more fuel to generate less electricity in 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n