Blackouts announced in Havana in “solidarity” with the rest of Cuba
The Cuban capital will begin to suffer the terrible blackouts, just like (or almost like) the rest of the country. This was announced this Friday at an economic meeting in Havana.
Starting next week, the Cuban capital will begin to suffer scheduled blackouts of 4 hours duration, every three days.
The blackouts are scheduled to take place during daylight hours in “solidarity” with the rest of the country’s provinces, which are heavily affected by power outages.
The blackouts will be from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., in two zones each day.
A report by Habana Noticiario informed that this measure – besides putting the capital in a situation more similar to that of the rest of the country – will save fuel and will result in fewer blackouts in the interior of the country.
So far, Cuban provinces have been the most affected by the electricity generation deficit. The non-capital population has taken the punishment for the current dismal situation of the thermal generation plants and the impoverishment of the distributed generation groups.
The Governor of Havana said that the circuits of all the capital municipalities will be turned off and the blackout schedule will be duly informed to the citizens.
According to García Zapata, Governor of Havana, “those circuits of continuous production, water pumping, hospitals and medical services will not be turned off. The programming must consider that other services, such as water and gas supply, will not be affected”.
“It is time to contribute so that the rest of Cuba suffers less from undesirable blackouts. It’s not that Havana is going to have blackouts because the country cannot, no. It is that Havana is considering these blackouts to help the rest of the country, being fair, in solidarity with our brothers, with our families, with our people,” García Zapata said.
According to Havana’s official press, the blackouts will save 100 megawatts. The authorities will take other saving measures, such as encouraging teleworking and granting massive vacations, emergency measures to save energy and reduce expenses.
So far in Havana there have been few blackouts and only in some municipalities, so many people in the interior of the country have protested on social networks for having to suffer blackouts of more than eight hours while Havana does not suffer from power outages.
A few weeks ago, Party and government authorities in Havana criticized that in the capital there was an overconsumption of energy while the rest of the country suffers daily blackouts of more than six hours.
