Cubans complain from another weekend to the dark: «We look like zombies»

With more than half of the country in Brugón, Cuba suffered on Saturday one of the most severe electricity effects of recent days, and the situation threatened to repeat itself this Sunday, according to the Electric Union forecast (UNE).

«Yesterday the service was affected at 24 hours and remained affected throughout the morning,» said the state company in her daily report. The affectation at the night peak time was 1651 megawatts (MW).

For this Sunday, UNE foresees a similar situation, with an affectation of 1615 MW. The company recognized the paralysis of 79 generation centrals distributed due to lack of fuel, in addition to breakdowns in units of the Nuevitas Thermoelectric Central, in Camagüey, and La Felton, in Holguín.

Five other units in the Santa Cruz del Norte thermoelectric plants, in Matanzas; Cienfuegos and I rent it, in Santiago de Cuba, they were disconnected by maintenance.

Meanwhile, the Government celebrated the opening of another photovoltaic park, of the 55 planned this year, in the province of Ciego de Ávila, with a 21.8 MW generation capacity.

According to the UNE report, the energy production of the 8 newly installed solar parks was 999 MWh on Saturday, the population questions these figures, in the midst of the continuous effects on the electric service, with blackouts that can last more than 20 hours a day.

«This is the same with the same. Until when they will continue with this abuse. They only make talk and promise improvements, but the actions do not coincide. There is no progress,» said the UNE on Facebook, the tunnel Yoe Licea.

Ana Olivera, from the province of Cienfuegos, also expressed their disappointment: «We are deceived that with the solar panels, we had to improve, but on the contrary, every day more days turned off.»

«A lousy week and a horrible weekend. It has become normal for the life of the Cuban family to be like that. What can we expect from people tomorrow, when they go for work and schools, after having a weekend of twelve and thirteen hours of blackout, and one or two with current. Will there be any performance?, I doubt the people of Cuba, we seem zombies Idania Ramirez Rodriguez.

At the end of March, the Cuban ruler Miguel Díaz-Canel He said that the energy crisis that impacts the daily life of the population is not the responsibility of their government. «Simply, we have not had the money for years to maintain thermoelectricas to make repairs,» he said on state television.

The national electricity service has suffered three collapses in less than two months. In October 2024, a general blackout lasted more than 96 hours, and a month later, the SEN was disconnected again with even greater effects, after the impact of Hurricane Rafael by the west of the country.

Experts warn that Cuba’s electroenergetic situation is not solved with partial relief programs, such as photovoltaic parks to which the government has opted, or the programmed maintenance of thermoelectric central rickens.

«They raise the spectative of the people and do not recognize what we all know, that the thermoelectric sector is totally collapsed (…). Do not speak more of renewable energies because there is no potential for it. Cuba has a problem of transparency and management. A centralized economic world will never work and this demonstrates it,» said the director of the Energy Program for Latin America and the Caribbean of the University of Texas, Jorge Piñón.