The Cuban government shuttered one of its largest thermoelectric power plants due to a fire in a fuel storage tank in Matanzas.
The Antonio Guiteras de Matanzas thermoelectric power plant, which is only five kilometers from the fire at the Matanzas supertanker port, had run out of water, prompting the Ministry of Energy and Mines to shut it down, Bloomberg reported.
“The Antonio Guiteras Thermoelectric Power Plant, in Matanzas, left the National Electric System due to lack of water,” the electrical workers union Unión Eléctrica announced on Twitter.
The disconnection of this power plant has only exacerbated Cuba’s energy crisis. Only 1,824 megawatts of the country’s total generation capacity of 3,000 megawatts are currently operational, suggesting an energy deficit of 1,176 megawatts.
Last week, sporadic protests were held in Santiago de Cuba, one of the island’s largest cities, in response to the city’s ongoing blackouts.
Cuba had been experiencing power outages for weeks, even before the blaze at the Matanzas supertanker port.
“It is the fourth explosion #Matanzas #Mexico sent personnel and equipment, it must be said that this installation is strategic for #Cuba,” CNN reporter Jonathan Salinas tweeted in Spanish.
According to Bloomberg, the Cuban government has been forced to divert many resources to extinguish the fire, and the fire at the fuel depot exposed a critical bottleneck:
Matanzas is Cuba’s only terminal capable of receiving fuel from large crude tankers that pipe oil to power plants across the country.
Reuters reported that Cuban officials could expand floating storage capacity to handle imports that would typically be offloaded at the Matanzas complex.
Still, the rolling blackouts have sparked protests against the government as Cuba continues to struggle to keep the lights on.
