By Lila Harmar and Valerie Miller
The start of summer hurricane season in the Caribbean has only just begun, yet the region has already weathered its first category five tropical storm, Beryl. Beryl caused major damage to homes, power lines and more across the southeast Caribbean, fueled by high temperatures in the Atlantic. The increase of extreme weather events fueled by climate change will continue to have outsized impacts on island nations that often face annual hurricane recovery efforts. Beryl missed Cuba but brought back memories of Ian in 2022, a tropical storm that also rapidly strengthened into a massive hurricane in very little time, causing damage across the region.
The threat of a more intense hurricane season this year due to warmer than average ocean water temperatures is worrying for Cuba because many parts of the country already face frequent blackouts due to the age and instability of Cuba''s electric grid. This summer is predicted to be the hottest on record, requiring more energy for cooling homes and businesses. Cuba is in the midst of an economic and energy crisis, but with domestic action and international support, there is opportunity for change — the Building a Cleaner, More Resilient Energy System in Cuba: Opportunities and Challenges report by EDF and the Columbia Sabin Center for Climate Change Law presents the current context and recommendations for improvements over the short, medium and long-term.
The report provides background information on Cuba''s climate and the history of its electric grid, investigates the current state of its functioning and analyzes the challenges currently facing the system. The report highlights the issue that not only is Cuba''s energy infrastructure in a precarious state of aging and disrepair, but also that its entire energy system relies heavily on external aid and imported fossil fuels.
This past June, Mexico resumed shipping oil to the island, a needed boost in the current system but one that underscores this foundational problem with Cuba''s electric grid. Cuba is dependent on fossil fuels for energy generation and relies on oil imports of crude and fuel oil from Venezuela and Russia, as well as floating power plants provided through an agreement with a Turkish business group. The lack of adequate energy generation, coupled with deteriorating energy transmission infrastructure and barriers to foreign investment due to U.S. policy toward Cuba, result in risks for Cubans and problems for everyday activities on the island, especially in conditions of severe heat.
While the issues facing the Cuban energy grid are wide-ranging, solutions exist across scales of impact. Building a Cleaner, More Resilient Energy System in Cuba recommends numerous ways by which domestic policy in Cuba can prioritize working towards a more sustainable, resilient grid — especially by investing in the energy transition — and ways in which international cooperation can support these goals. Among the international-level recommendations, the report suggests the benefits of dialogue between the United States and Cuba in promoting renewable energy in Cuba. Despite the longstanding tensions between the countries, there is opportunity for cooperation especially in the less politically fraught realm of scientific and climatic expertise.
The report also details ways in which other islands in the Caribbean, including the Bahamas and Puerto Rico, have used external investments to stimulate their own transitions towards more renewable and resilient energy grids. While these islands have varying degrees of applicability to the Cuban context, both Puerto Rico and the Bahamas were able to pioneer renewable energy projects by leveraging funds from NGOs.
With support from EDF, 45 low-income homes received solar photovoltaic panels and battery storage systems as part of a community-led solar energy project in Culebra, Puerto Rico, a small island municipality whose residents and energy infrastructure suffered heavily in the wake of Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017. These solar microgrid and battery storage systems allowed the Culebra residents with the systems to maintain essential energy throughout hurricane Fiona in September, 2022, when others on the island lost power. Distributed clean energy systems like those in Culebra can help communities be more resilient in the face of storms and the aftermath, providing critical energy when centralized systems fail. This solution can also work in Cuba.
Due to rising temperatures and increasingly unreliable energy infrastructure, action to update Cuba''s energy grid is urgently necessary. Though the country is facing an ongoing economic crisis, potential for improvement exists especially in the opening of international collaborations with partners in the Caribbean and nongovernmental organization and in increasing dialogue between Cuba and the United States. Some of these steps may seem unlikely, but — as history has long borne out — with urgent need comes the potential for unprecedented collaboration.
Environmental Defense Fund is a nonprofit, tax-exempt charitable organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Donations are tax-deductible as allowed by law. Tax identification number 11-6107128.
EDF operates with the highest standards of ethics and open, honest communication. Read our whistleblower policy or report a concern through our confidential, third-party compliance site.
Last Friday, October 18, the Cuban Electric Power System collapsed. An "unforeseen breakdown" at the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant, the largest unitary generation block, caused a "total disconnection" that left the entire country in the dark.
It was not the first time that something like this had happened in recent years. In September 2022, there had already been another general outage during the passage of Hurricane Ian. Only this time there was no hurricane hitting the island, at least not yet, as Oscar would later arrive to further strain the situation in the eastern tip of the island.
It took almost five days and new total and partial power outages for the system to be fully reconnected. Hours and hours of continuous work by the electrical workers were necessary, as well as quite a few resources, while a large part of the country remained paralyzed, turned off, plunged into uncertainty.
However, less than a day before the collapse, the government had already declared a "national power emergency" in the midst of a new peak of blackouts and record figures in the generation deficit. Faced with this, it had announced a contingency plan, which included the paralysis of economic and other activities.
The total disconnection then became like "the straw that broke the camel''s back," the sad culmination of a debacle that had been on the way, not only in the last few weeks or months, but for years; foreseeable in the opinion of quite a few experts, despite the continuous plans and strategies announced by the authorities to deal with the prolonged crisis.
How did it get to this point? What have been the paths of the collapse? What has happened in recent years that has accentuated the fragility of a key sector not only for Cuba, but for any country, for its economy and its people?
Aside from the specific breakdown and the consistent imbalance in the technical values necessary for the balance of the system that led to its total disconnection, there is an unavoidable group of factors that have led to what happened.
Below we will address several aspects, interconnected with each other, that portray the difficult panorama of the Cuban Electric Power System and explain as a whole the crisis that it is going through, the scene and catalyst of its recent collapse.
Fall in power generation
Power generation — that is, the Electric Power System''s raison d''etre — has been in free fall in recent years. Between 2018 and 2022 it was reduced by almost a quarter, according to data published last year, a dynamic that has not been able to stop since then and that has translated into a logical increase in blackouts as consumption has continued to grow.
Cuba imported more fuel to generate less electricity in 2023
A review of the reports from the Electric Union (UNE) allows us to see not only the daily effects of generation deficits ― multiplied in periods of crisis ― but also the growing inability to generate, due to different factors, which have caused falls below 2000 MW, far from the demand, which regularly exceeds 3000 MW according to official estimates.
Deterioration of thermoelectric plants
The so-called thermal generation is the basis of the Cuban Electric Power System, but it suffers from the handicap of an aging and overexploited infrastructure. In addition, it has been losing part of its operations, following the withdrawal of the Mariel, Renté, Nuevitas units and the historic Tallapiedra plant in Havana. If we add to these the Felton 2, affected in 2022 by a fire, the total is 615 MW lost.
In addition, of the 15 blocks in operation, 14 have been in operation for more than 30 years and seven of them have been in operation for more than 40 years, as explained last May by Alfredo López, director of UNE, who confirmed that since 2018 no thermoelectric plant has received major maintenance. The Guiteras, for example, has already gone 13 years without any, as a result of repeated postponements in the midst of the crisis.
All of this hinders the generation capacity of these old units. "A 100 MW unit today only generates between 70 or 80 megawatts. The sum of all these deficits is in the order of 400 MW due to the years of operation, the lack of spare parts," recently said De la O Levy, who said that the maintenance they have received in recent times seeks to "keep them alive."
Problems with distributed generation
Thermoelectric plants are not the only ones that have seen their generation capacity reduced. The much-needed generator sets, emblems of the former Power Revolution and support for the so-called distributed generation, have also suffered the impact of the lack of parts, maintenance and fuel — both diesel and fuel oil —, which in turn has drastically affected their power production.
The generator sets'' generation plummeted by 42% between 2018 and 2022, according to official data. In November 2023, the director of UNE explained that although there were more than 2,000 MW of distributed generation in the country, only about 900 were available. However, this September the minister lowered that figure to 400 MW and admitted that the capital repair plan had not been met since 2021.
In addition to the problems of these sets, which are often started up after the recommended time without receiving maintenance, there are those suffered, for the same reasons, by the fuel shortages of the Mariel and Moa units, and even by the Turkish barges, which have also run out of fuel and whose number ― which was once eight ― has decreased after the departure of several of them from the island.
Low contribution of renewable energies
A decade has already passed since the Cuban parliament''s approval of a policy for the prospective development of renewable sources. However, despite the plans drawn up and redrawn, and the official discourse that recognizes their importance in changing the energy matrix and eliminating dependence on fossil fuels, since then little progress has been made.
At the end of 2021, the implementation of the policy was barely 47% complete, according to Rosell Guerra Campaña, director of Renewable Energies at the Ministry of Energy and Mines, and although actions have continued to be carried out since then ― especially the installation of new photovoltaic parks ― the contribution of these sources has even fallen below 5% of all electricity production in Cuba.
Lack of financing, failed investments ― such as the Ciro Redondo bioelectric plant, which has not managed to contribute what was expected ― and unsuccessful plans have conspired to seriously threaten the government''s intention to reach 2030 with 24% or more of generation based on these sources, even with the new plan underway to install 2000 MW in solar parks in a few years.
About Cuba residential energy storage
As the photovoltaic (PV) industry continues to evolve, advancements in Cuba residential energy storage have become critical to optimizing the utilization of renewable energy sources. From innovative battery technologies to intelligent energy management systems, these solutions are transforming the way we store and distribute solar-generated electricity.
When you're looking for the latest and most efficient Cuba residential energy storage for your PV project, our website offers a comprehensive selection of cutting-edge products designed to meet your specific requirements. Whether you're a renewable energy developer, utility company, or commercial enterprise looking to reduce your carbon footprint, we have the solutions to help you harness the full potential of solar energy.
By interacting with our online customer service, you'll gain a deep understanding of the various Cuba residential energy storage featured in our extensive catalog, such as high-efficiency storage batteries and intelligent energy management systems, and how they work together to provide a stable and reliable power supply for your PV projects.
Related Contents
