Cuban government makes new promise to reduce power outages

By Marleidy Muñoz (El Toque)

HAVANA TIMES – “Next year, we will have at least one minute in which we will not consume imported fuel,” said Vicente de la O Levy, Minister of Energy and Mining, on the Mesa Redonda television program, broadcast on Wednesday, September 4, 2024.

The minister based his promise on the “introduction of renewable energy,” the “growth of Energas,” and the “repair of thermal units.” With these actions, the Cuban government hopes to reduce the frequent and widespread power outages that have affected the population throughout the year. The crisis worsened in July and August, according to official reports.

The minister admitted that there had been power outages of up to 12 hours in late August, exceeding the official estimate of four hours of planned outages per day. The reason was maintenance work at thermal power plants operating for more than 40 years, carried out in order to “keep them alive”.

Vicente de la O Levy attributed the “tense” situation to breakdowns in old thermal power plants, shortages of imported fuel, “especially in March, May and some days in June”, a lack of spare parts and an “exceptionally large” increase in demand.

According to the minister, the country consumes 8 million tons of fuel, of which it produces only 3 million and has to buy 5 million tons from international markets at high prices.

Among the biggest consumers, the minister highlighted the limited private sector. “There are many new enterprises (…) that consume significant amounts of… air conditioners, household appliances (…), tens of thousands of them pass through customs every year, are installed and used,” he said.

The sources of electricity production in Cuba are thermal power plants, the Energas company (using gas accompanying crude oil), several barges rented from the Turkish company Karpowership, a group of generators and renewable energy sources.

According to the minister, the aim of the actions is to alleviate the situation by recovering electricity transmitted from generators, continuing maintenance work on thermal power plants and increasing gas production.

More ambitious is the plan to add about 2,000 megawatts to the system by 2028 through the installation of 92 new photovoltaic parks. Currently, only 4% of Cuba’s energy comes from renewable sources. Rosell Guerra, director of renewable energy, stated on the Mesa Redonda television program that construction is underway for 30 solar parks.

Cuban economist Ricardo Torres, a researcher at the Observatorio de Monedas y Finanzas in El Toque, questioned the feasibility of the state’s strategy in the country’s current circumstances, noting: “The sugar industry that already existed was not capitalized to become a powerhouse for energy production, and now we are talking about wanting to invest about $2 billion in 2,000 MW of solar parks that produce energy intermittently and require storage systems to use the energy produced during the day.”

“If Cuba had a sugar industry capable of producing ethanol for transportation and also generating electricity using proven technology from bagasse and agricultural waste, why are we now presenting this solution at the last minute when we could have tapped into a sector that has had such a large impact on the economy?” Torres added.

While authorities have not answered these and other questions, the government continues to repeat the old mantra of asking the population to save energy. At Mesa Redonda, Minister Vicente de la O Levy gave the example of the Cuban state: “We are sacrificing the economy to have less impact on the population.”

Long-term power outages were one of the causes of the mass anti-government protests on July 11, 2021, as well as other, more local demonstrations in 2022, 2023 and 2024.

First published in Spanish by Toque and translated and published in English by Havana Times.

You can read more about Cuba on the Havana Times website.