Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz appeared on Thursday night to try to quell Cubans’ anger over the blackouts, repeating information already known by all and promising imminent relief from the current critical situation with the arrival of fuel, but announcing shutdowns at two large thermoelectric plants, without specifying dates.
"There are three important factors affecting the electricity generation shortfall: the state of the infrastructure, the lack of fuel, and the increase in demand," but "the lack of fuel is the most important factor," Marrero Cruz stated in a TV appearance posted on the regime's Cubadebate portal.
"At the government level, as a policy, we have decided to prioritize the residential sector. We have been halting economic activities to guarantee energy generation for the people," he added, a measure that has not spared part of the population, especially in the central and eastern provinces of the country, from having service for only three hours a day recently.
The prime minister insisted on the importance of the strategy to progressively eliminate dependence on fossil fuels, with measures to cultivate alternative energy sources, whose equipment installation is very expensive.
Meanwhile, the general director of the Electric Union (UNE), Alfredo López, said that thermal generation was in line with the parameters for the period, and that the difficulties were concentrated in distributed and mobile generation, which have been affected by fuel problems, with shortages reaching some 800 megawatts this Thursday.
In the short term, López said, technical maintenance stops were to be imposed at the Felton and Guiteras facilities, two of the system's most important, to recover the plants' design capacities. He did not cite a specific date.
With reference to fuels, he said that the situation should improve as of Friday thanks to the unloading of a ship carrying fuel-oil, which will be delivered to the plants, in additional to another 2,000 tons of diesel for engines.
He announced that the fuel ships are in Matanzas and will move as weather conditions improve, so the availability of fuel, and the consequent electricity generation, should begin on Friday night.
Prior to the appearances by the regime's officials DIARIO DE CUBA verified, through ship tracking sites, that the Liberian-flagged tanker Ocean Mariner, which the Cuban military has been renting since at least 2022, was entering Matanzas Bay.
This ship departed from the refinery of the Mexican oil company PEMEX in Ciudad Madero, Tampico. However, oil shipments from Mexico, Cuba's lifeline for much of 2023, have been declining in recent months, with no official statements specifying whether they will continue on a regular basis or will only be occasional.
There are no Cuban tankers taking on fuel at the PEMEX refinery in Tampico, according to the maritime monitoring platforms themselves.
Edrey Rocha González, General Director of the state-run Cuba Petroleos (CUPET), said that the fuel-oil distribution will begin tomorrow afternoon/evening for the patanas (powerships) corresponding to Mariel, Havana, and Moa, and that that the weather conditions had prevented docking at those ports.
With regards to diesel, he said that 2,000 tons per day will be distributed, which will make it possible to start up most of the distributed generation groups.
The official said that the absence of liquefied gas increased demand by more than 250 MW. "Tomorrow, liquefied gas will be distributed to all the country's territories, and will gradually reach more families, which will make it possible to reduce cooking-related consumption," he said, quoted by journalist Lázaro Manuel Alonso.
On his Facebook profile Alonso reported that classes had been suspended on Friday throughout the country due to the energy situation, and will resume on Monday. The Education Ministry, however, stated that the measure was due to existing weather conditions.
Marrero Cruz said that there is "a group of medium-term actions that should improve the national electricity situation," and that the Government will keep a communication channel open to inform the population in a timely manner.
As they have stated on the UNE's own channels, Cubans are tired of words; what they demand is a definitive solution to the blackouts, which are exacerbating what is already a difficult struggle to survive on the island.