In 1962, the U.S. government implemented a package of restrictions and sanctions against Cuba, the moment when the economic blockade of the island formally began. These measures have increased and intensified for more than 60 years, to the point of preventing other countries from doing business with Cuba, as well as limiting their access to dollars in the foreign market.
According to Cuba’s Ministry of Economy and Planning, the island has stopped receiving around 150 billion dollars in income due to the embargo.
One of the sectors most affected by the negative effects of the embargo has been the energy sector, due to the restrictions on acquiring foreign equipment or technology and products with U.S. patents.
The process begins with the generation and transmission of electricity that reaches state and residential customers. How can we visualize the negative impact of the embargo on each of these processes? Why is the necessary maintenance of the thermoelectric generating plants affected? Dariel Sánchez Viera, who is a sales representative of the Unidad Empresarial de Base Eléctrica in Contramaestre, answers these questions:
“The thermoelectric power plants need a prolonged maintenance of 6 to 7 months, so they need technological equipment that has been contracted with different foreign companies and the aggression of the blockade prevents many of these parts from entering the country for timely maintenance .
The thermoelectric power plants also need fuel for generation, which is affected by the limitations imposed by the blockade.
The US blockade hinders fuel supply
The contracts are established with companies and there is a level of restrictions imposed by the blockade so that many of these cannot enter the country and the country must adopt other measures as alternatives, so that there is an uninterrupted sequence of fuel supply to the floating power plants. The country has worked to purchase them in Asia and Europe, which causes an increase in the cost of these fuels due to the remoteness and this in turn, causes a delay in the maintenance cycles. “
Q: Do the electrical networks for the transmission of that energy that reaches our homes and workplaces also require maintenance and replacements because they suffer damages?
D. S: “In the electric networks, the purchase of conductors, insulation, meter meters, connections, poles, which in the last two years Unión Eléctrica has not been able to import as it used to do to a great extent. The country today cannot acquire these resources. “
Q: How much does the generation of electric power cost the country?
D.S: “One megawatt of power generation to be installed in the system is equivalent to approximately 1.6 million dollars. A situation that has been worsening in recent times with the fuel issue and the generating units that have had situations of accelerated maintenance to which it has not been possible to provide a solution and have been in very critical moments. “
Q: How does the population perceive the negative effects of the blockade on the electricity service they receive?
D.S: “In the case of the customers, the requests for new services, change of voltage are limited because for more than three years the country has not been able to import enough meters to comply with one hundred percent of the requests, the connection, which is an aluminum or copper conductor used for service to homes, is not available today in our warehouses. Our technology also does not meet the conditions that it should have from the tires, the bodywork, the fuel allocations, even planning a greater number of maintenance to the networks, attention to the pruning, all the attention that gives vitality to the electric system of the territory.
Q: In the electric sector there are innovators, people who with their ingenuity manage to put into practice alternatives to alleviate somewhat these affectations caused by the blockade?
D.S: “With the entry of the floating power plants in the country, which are generating units, a temporary solution has been provided to remove some units that are out of the system, which allows us to continue providing service to the electric system. Our company has been looking for alternatives such as recovering a level of conductors that are idle in the networks or meter meters that are at zero consumption, they are removed and recovered in qualified laboratories and installed in the new housing built. The work team of our base business unit and of the country has been providing solutions to the problems that are arising.
The electric guard works 24 hours a day with a team that sometimes without resources must face situations due to breakdowns that require the ingenuity of the human resources to find solutions without violating the technical norms as established by the regulations of health and safety at work. The blockade limits the economic life of the country, which is restricted with the financing to acquire the necessary resources for maintenance and replacement of parts”.
In various scenarios around the world Cuba has demanded an end to the persecution of our commercial and financial ties with the rest of the world. The blockade is a massive, flagrant and systematic violation of the human rights of all the people of Cuba which, according to Article II, paragraph c) of the Geneva Convention of 1948, constitutes an act of genocide.
