No Pause in the Mission to Reconnect Eastern Provinces

Although the provinces of Holguín and Las Tunas have begun receiving service from the National Electroenergetic System (SEN), coverage remains limited. This is due to the outage of Unit 1 at the Felton thermoelectric plant—which had been synchronized on Sunday morning—and the fuel oil engines in Moa, which occurred yesterday afternoon and evening.

The provinces of Granma, Santiago de Cuba, and Guantánamo remain disconnected from the national grid. These areas are providing power to their vital structures through small, isolated microsystems.

Lázaro Guerra Hernández, Director of Electricity at the Ministry of Energy and Mines, confirmed that despite having energized the main substations in Las Tunas and Holguín, the electrical load being served in these provinces is "still small and very limited," which prevents the rotation of circuits.

The full reincorporation of these territories into the national service is being hindered by the need to inspect, certify, and repair damaged transmission and distribution lines—a process known as "celaje." This work is complicated by difficult access to mountainous areas and the persistent humidity in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa. This process is indispensable to safely energize the grids without the risk of causing new damage.

Nationwide Efforts Amid Generation Deficit

While the eastern part of the country works incessantly toward an effective reconnection, the SEN continues to operate with a generation capacity deficit that is also affecting the connected provinces from Pinar del Río to Camagüey.

Running parallel to the recovery, forces from two forestry companies in Pinar del Río are working at an accelerated pace to cut and transport wood for the production of electrical and telephone poles, destined to support the recovery in the territories affected by Hurricane Melissa.

In total, the province must complete 4,500 pieces, ranging from 7.5 to 12 meters in length, before the end of the year.

Francisco Díaz Roque, director of the pole impregnation plant located in the Pinar del Río municipality of Guane—the only one of its kind in the country—told the Granma newspaper that the extractive brigade of his UEB (basic business unit) is currently working on felling the trees to be used for this task. The Guanahacabibes Agroforestry Company is also contributing, tasked with supplying a portion of the pieces for the telephone network.