In a meeting of the Council of Ministers, President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez said this Wednesday, in relation to the instability in the national electricity system, which "we are going through a complex situation that fundamentally affects the population, which causes discomfort in the population and paralyzes an important part of economic activity.
“There are two fundamental causes: one is related to breakages and necessary maintenance that have had to be given to the thermoelectric plants, and another to the fuel deficit. Both causes are closely linked to everything that the tightening of the blockade and the measures of the Trump Administration have affected in the life of the Cuban people.
“The fact that these things happen, that our economy, our population are affected, shows how perverse the blockade policy is and how much double standards there are in the policy of the United States Government, when on the one hand it says that it will do everything possible so that the Cuban people have better life chances”, and on the other maintains the sanctions that affect the population and the economy”.
The president explained that there is a group of breakages due to the fact that "there has not been timely and necessary financing to provide required maintenance, which was already pending, to a group of thermoelectric plants and, therefore, several systems have been collapsing."
“On the other hand – he added – these breaks have coincided intensely and in a short time. Several plants have had problems and have had to go out of service for a certain time”.
He assured that the plant groups are working hard to solve the problems, in the midst of the existing complex situation in terms of resources, as quickly as possible.
An example, the president continued, was the Guiteras thermoelectric plant. “I was working with stability and yesterday, during an electrical storm, lightning struck and took out of service the plant with the greatest generation capacity at the moment. And in a very intense way, with a job that did not stop from the breakdown until today morning, that unit is already synchronized”.
He explained that maintenance has been scheduled to recover power and ensure the summer, with prioritized financing, in a group of plants, where there is a schedule.
“It's the fastest way we have to get power back. Now, these are processes that are carried out in a scheduled, staggered manner, and that take time, especially due to the accumulated levels of damage and everything that is due to the maintenance of these plants.
“And here we also work with intensity and rigor, but if there are plants out of service due to scheduled maintenance to guarantee a better situation and greater power, and on the other hand this coincides with breakages in other plants, this causes generation deficits, especially all during peak hours and, in recent days, associated with the lack of fuel availability, they generate annoying blackouts almost all day long in the country”.
He recalled that, since there is not enough diesel fuel available to generate with the support stations –because there is fuel available for thermal generation–, that distributed generation that supports the vacuum in thermal generation is not enough to cover the service.
"The coincidence of these problems is what has caused instability in recent days," he reiterated, and announced that negotiations are being held to ensure stability in the coming months.
“It has been very difficult to obtain timely offers that cover this situation in relation to fuels, and combined operation variants are being analyzed daily to reduce generation deficits. But, at the present time, between maintenance, breakdowns and fuel availability, the situation is still complex in the coming days”.
“Every way is sought to speed up fuel negotiation processes and technological processes so that they give us stability in the electro-energy system in the shortest possible time.
“We can ensure that work is done tirelessly,” he said, pointing to the need for “the responsible effort made by SEN workers to be supported by conscious savings and the rational use of energy in everything possible both in the state sector, the productive sector and the economy, as in the residential sector.
