He large-scale blackout suffered this Friday in Cuba It is one more episode, perhaps the most serious, in a long list of incidents in one of the most deteriorated and stressed electrical systems in Latin America. Decades of lack of investment, both in generation plants and networks and an almost total dependence on fossil generation (gas and, above all, diesel and fuel oil, both imported) have made it one of the most fragile in the region. Everything, despite the good starting conditions (sun and wind) for the emergence of photovoltaics and wind, the two technologies that They are completely changing the energy paradigm of rich countries and also of many emerging ones..
The largest power plant in Cuba, that of Antonio Guiteras (in the province of Matanzas, northwest), whose collapse is behind the great blackout this Friday and which had been pending in-depth maintenance for days after having been operating all summer, entered came into operation in early 1988. Since then, investment in thermal power plants – which, powered by fossil fuels, remain the backbone of the island’s electricity generation – has been minimal. The result is none other than an obsolete system, largely of Soviet origin and with the useful life of its half dozen major plants already completed or about to be completed. Fed, for the most part, with fuel from countries friends; especially from Venezuela.
In 2022, the last year for which the International Energy Agency (IEA, the energy arm of the OECD) has datamore than 83% of electricity was generated with petroleum derivatives, especially the aforementioned imported diesel and fuel oils. Natural gas plants contributed another long 12%. And renewables—biofuels; wind, with a few parks in the “experimental” phase; hydraulic, with thirty plants connected to the national grid; and photovoltaics—are still below 5%. A minimum figure, which explains a significant part of the generation problems suffered in recent years.
Stranded in time
Added to the lack of investment in recent decades, which has left the Cuban electrical system stranded in time, is the high dependence on fossil fuels. A triple problem. First, external dependence: although the island produces crude oil, it is not enough to cover its internal consumption and it has to resort to imports, especially from Venezuela and Mexico. Second, prices: the generation of electricity with oil (and, to a lesser extent, with gas) is one of the most expensive of any modern electrical system and forces the burning of a resource as precious as foreign currency, which is scarce on the island. . Third, interruptibility: although they are capable of producing electricity 24 hours a day, an episode of fuel shortage such as the one experienced in recent weeks, in which several oil tankers have not been able to unload on the island for meteorological reasons, puts at risk Check your entire electrical system. And fourth, environmental, with a much larger carbon footprint than in other countries of its size, with a population of around 11 million people.
The Government of Miguel Díaz-Canel is aware, at least in rhetoric, that the future lies in renewables. But investment is needed, a very scarce commodity on the island in recent years. Just a few months ago, in March, the Cuban authorities announced a plan to install 92 photovoltaic parks between now and 2028. They would increase, they said, the island’s generating capacity by around two gigawatts, raising the share of green energy to almost the limit. 25% of the national electricity matrix at the end of the decade.
Hotels also in darkness
Not even the hotels intended for tourism—the priority of the Cuban Government: it is its main source of foreign currency—have been able to escape the darkness of the massive blackout on October 18, which left the majority completely cut off and entire families unable to cook their food and standing in long lines to access liquefied gas.
With Cuba becoming the target of international press headlines since Friday afternoon, the situation was no better in the early hours of Saturday. The Ministry of Energy and Mines hopes to have “greater electricity coverage in the country.” Some residents of Havana confirmed that they had electricity in their homes, especially in those areas where Cubans have taken to the streets to protest the lack of this service and other basic services, such as drinking water or food. There are those, however, who still remain in the dark. And who, after seeing the supply temporarily return, have returned to darkness.
“The power came on almost at five in the morning and they took it off at six,” explains Zulema Duvergel, a resident of the Bauta municipality, southwest of Havana. He’s been trying to wash his dirty clothes for a day and a half. No success: you have not been able to start the washing machine. “I was halfway through the wash and now I have to squeeze them by hand.”
For others the situation may be worse. Lizbet Licor, from Remedios, Villa Clara, in the center of the Island, has been without electricity for just 36 hours. “They put it on for two hours, it left again and we still don’t have any,” he points out. “I am cooking with an improvised charcoal stove, going through a thousand jobs, without water in the tank. “I haven’t been able to rest for three nights.” He also says that the unrest led some neighbors to break the windows of a town store to demand that the authorities restore the service.
The Cuban Government insists that it will not be past Saturday for the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant to return to operation. Some microelectric generation systems have already begun to provide electricity to scattered municipalities or neighborhoods in the country. However, it is still uncertain when the island’s authorities will be able to guarantee a service that did not have a momentary failure this Friday, but rather has kept Cubans under constant blackouts for some time.
Díaz-Canel said that “they are working hard and tirelessly to recover the electrical system.” And that the Executive gives “absolute priority” to the solution “of this highly sensitive energy contingency for the nation.”
like two years ago
The situation of the last few hours is reminiscent of that experienced just over two years ago, at the end of September 2022, when the passage of Hurricane Ian left the island in a situation of “zero production.” Exactly the same as this Friday. In between, an endless number of partial blackouts, daily comings and goings in the electricity supply in various areas of the country that have weighed down an economy at minimum levels – the Cuban GDP fell 1.9% last year and points to a weak growth of 0.5% this, according to the latest projections of ECLAC, the economic arm of the UN for Latin America and the Caribbean— and that have fueled social discontent and protests.
In Havana, usually the last link in the chain of blackouts due to its status as the capital, they had been without light for several days with at least six hours a day. Periods that, in municipalities with a smaller population, were already around 20 hours a day. After the national blackout, the island’s Government has paralyzed “all work activities” outside of those “strictly essential”, with its consequent economic impact. It has also decreed the disconnection of the network from the premises that are empty, as well as the shutdown of high-consumption equipment (ovens and refrigerators, among others) during peak consumption hours.
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