Cuba struggles to stabilize power system after fourth nationwide blackout

Sources in Havana said the latest power outage occurred on the evening of March 14 local time, due to a malfunction at the Diezmero transformer station on the outskirts of the capital. The incident caused the entire national power system to stop working and after many hours of urgent work, by the afternoon of March 17, the power system was gradually restored, but power shortages continued in many places.

According to information from the National Electricity Union of Cuba (UNE), the restoration of SEN is being carried out in stages. Thermal power plants and distributed generation systems (using diesel and fuel oil) have been reactivated and connected to each other to synchronize and restore electricity supply.

The UNE's national load dispatch director, Félix Estrada Rodríguez, said the system is now stable but there are still supply shortages, especially during peak hours.

Although floating power plants in Havana have been operating at full capacity to increase energy supplies, according to UNE forecasts, more than 41% of the country is still at risk of losing power during the evening peak hours due to a shortage of about 1,335 MW. This situation has caused many areas of the Caribbean island to suffer power outages lasting more than 20 hours, similar to previous months.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel thanked the people for their understanding and for sharing with the government the inconvenience caused by the frequent and prolonged power outages. He also thanked the workers in the electricity sector for their tireless efforts to overcome the problem.

Cuba’s energy crisis has been a serious problem for years. The national power system relies heavily on seven aging thermal power plants that have suffered from a lack of investment in upgrading. The situation is further exacerbated by a shortage of diesel and fuel fuel due to financial difficulties. The Cuban government estimates that it will need between $8 billion and $10 billion to improve the power system, a figure that is beyond the country’s current capacity.

Therefore, a comprehensive solution to the energy crisis in Cuba will require a lot of time and resources. In the short term, the government continues to focus on maintaining the stability of the power system and looking for temporary solutions such as increasing the use of distributed generation sources.

However, to completely solve the problem, Cuba needs large investments and extensive reforms in the energy sector, a significant challenge in the current context.