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A fault leaves more than half of Cuba in the dark. It is the fourth massive blackout suffered by the island in 10 days

2023-02-23T14:26:33.500Z


The regime admits that it will take between five and eight years to modernize the electrical grid and an annual budget of $250 million to make it work under "normal conditions."


More than half of Cuba was left in the dark on Wednesday afternoon due to a fault in the electrical network, the fourth massive blackout suffered by the island in less than 10 days.

Faced with complaints from users on social networks, who complained of being without electricity, the state company Unión Eléctrica confirmed the failure and explained that it affects the provinces that go from Matanzas -in the north of the island- to Guantánamo -in the this-.

A woman looks at her cell phone while eating next to a man by candlelight during a blackout in Havana, on May 25, 2022, due to a failure at a thermoelectric plantYamil Lage / AFP via Getty Images

"Several provincial offices of the electric companies confirmed that on the afternoon of this Wednesday there was a new failure of the National Electroenergetic System in the central-eastern region of Cuba," the company explained in a statement.

The affected area extended, according to the official report, from the central province of Matanzas to Guantanamo, in the Far East.

The Electric Union pointed out that the failure occurred in a 220 kilowatt transmission line, but did not specify the causes.

On February 13, the authorities reported that a fire in a sugarcane field that affected facilities in the eastern part of the country left half a dozen provinces without supply from Ciego de Ávila.

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Last Saturday, a "human error" left the center and east without electricity for at least six hours, starting from Matanzas.

On Tuesday there was a new drop in supply, as reported by the Unión Eléctrica.

“We have spent two days when it is time to cook there is no way to turn on the electrical appliances,” independent reporter Francisco Herodes Díaz told the digital medium 14ymedio.com from the city of Santiago de Cuba.

“When we were getting used to having electricity again, the blackout came again.”

The Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, said on February 16 in an intervention on state television that the island needs "some 250 million dollars a year" for the electrical network to work under "normal conditions," without count the cost of importing fuel.

In 2022 alone, Cuba spent 1.7 billion dollars on it, according to 14ymedio.com.

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The Cuban authorities estimate that they need "five to eight years to recapitalize the entire energy system," the minister explained.

Cuba suffered problems in its electrical system in mid-2021, which worsened in 2022. The blackouts occurred due to a combination of various factors, such as a demand greater than the island's production capacity, the lack of fuel to feed the power plants or the poor condition of the infrastructures, which are more than 30 years old and are not properly maintained, according to the Cuban authorities.

The regime also admitted that it does not have the financial resources to solve the problem and blamed its shortcomings on US economic sanctions, as well as the island's ban on buying spare parts.

In recent months, Cuba has resorted to renting several floating plants from Turkey, which arrived to support the National Electro-energy System.

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The passage of a hurricane, at the end of September 2022, caused a national blackout that left the island in the dark for an entire day.

The power cuts have irritated the population, also affected by the shortage of basic foods since they use electricity mainly for cooking, as well as to combat the heat with air conditioning or fans.

Service interruptions in July 2021 and October 2022 were followed by street protests.

In November, December and January there was greater stability in the electricity supply as it coincided with a drop in demand typical of the winter months.

With information from

The Associated Press

Source: telemundo

All news articles on 2023-02-23

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