The closure of Cuba’s main thermal power plant caused a breakdown in the island’s entire electrical system, the Ministry of Energy and Mines stated this Friday, October 18, in a context of“energy emergency”. “The system is without electricity throughout the country”after the closure of the Antonio-Guiteras plant, Lázaro Guerra, general director of Electricity of the ministry, told state television.
The government had tried to avoid this gigantic blackout by ordering the closure of schools and non-essential industries during the day and sending most officials home. But shortly before noon the Antonio-Guiteras plant, the largest and most efficient in Cuba, interrupted its production. “There will be no respite until electricity is restored”reacted the Cuban communist president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, on the social network X.
The island is currently experiencing its worst crisis in three decades, with food and medicine shortages and chronic power outages. Electricity is produced there from eight dilapidated thermal power plants, sometimes damaged or undergoing maintenance, as well as seven floating power plants, which the government rents to Russian companies, and from generators. Most of this infrastructure requires fuel to operate.
Scarcity and growing demand
Cuba has already suffered periodic power cuts for several weeks, which Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz attributed on Thursday to three reasons: deterioration of infrastructure, fuel shortages and increased demand. “The shortage of fuel oil is the main factor”declared the head of Government during a televised speech interrupted by broadcasting difficulties and delayed several hours.
Strong winds and bad weather that accompanied Hurricane Milton last week in the region reduced fuel supplies to power plants by sea. The island’s two largest power stations, Felton and Antonio-Guiteras, are running at low capacity and also need immediate maintenance work, according to the government, as part of a four-year infrastructure renewal plan.
Private entrepreneurs, whose number is growing strongly, are finally contributing to increasing the demand for electricity and will pay more taxes for the energy they consume, added Marrero Cruz.
Cuba’s main oil supplier, Venezuela, reduced deliveries to an average of 32,600 barrels per day in the first nine months of the year, about half that during the same period in 2023, according to maritime tracking data and oil company documents. Venezuelan PDVSA. , which has reduced its exports to face the shortage in the national territory. Russia and Mexico, Cuba’s other past oil suppliers, have also sharply reduced their deliveries.
