Authorities were working to restore Friday’s blackout through an “island” system
The Electrical Union of Cuba has reported this Saturday of a new blackout that has once again left the island without electricity supply and has frustrated attempts to launch an “island” system to reestablish the previous blackout, recorded on Friday.
“At 06:15 am a new total blackout of the national electrical system occurred,” the Cuban Electrical Union reported in a statement. “The Electrical Union is working to restore it,” he explains.
The Director of Electricity of the Cuban Ministry of Energy and Mines, Lázaro Guerra, had previously reported a process of restoring the electricity supply after the blackout on Friday that left the entire island without electricity.
“At this moment we have microsystems in all provinces, except in Artemisa, which have limited power and reach consumers close to them,” Guerra explained in statements on Cuban Television.
The engineer explained that to synchronize each of the thermal units, microsystems (islands) have been launched with the distributed generation groups of the territories, which will bring energy to the thermoelectric plants. The generating sets close to the thermal blocks are prioritized, he noted.
“Qualified forces and specialists” work on this plan in all territories, focused on ensuring that everything is done in the shortest possible time.
Meanwhile, the Cuban Electrical Union has urged the population to moderate consumption. “Consumers who have service are asked to limit their consumption to what is necessary since customers are being served with very little power,” he noted on his Telegram channel.
The official Cuban media has recalled that the facilities, systems and services of Cuba’s international airports have their own backup electricity generation and maintain their usual operation, while the trains also maintain their usual schedule.
There are also measures underway to guarantee the partial operation of Havana’s public transportation with the use of generator sets to supply the different means of transportation.
The authorities have declared an energy emergency and the Ministry of Education has suspended classes, although it said it was due to the storms that have affected the island since Thursday.
In September 2022, a similar situation occurred after Category 3 Hurricane ‘Ian’ passed through the western end of the island. Recovery took several days.