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Cuba 'on verge of total collapse' as country hit by blackouts and runs out of food and power

The crisis in Cuba has seen its government approach the United Nations for aid to address its food shortage, as residents take to the streets in a rare sign of social unrest

Cuba is "on the verge of total collapse" as the country has been hit by blackouts with residents taking to the streets calling for "food and power".

The crisis has seen the Cuban government approach the United Nations for aid to address its food shortage. As the Caribbean island goes through its harshest economic crisis in three decades, the communist regime is resorting to hitherto unseen cries for help to other countries.

The country has been hit by US restrictions, a weak tourism industry, and a decaying domestic product which has left the proud independent nation on it's knees. In an article for Bloomberg, author Juan Pablo Spinetto writes that the situation has brought about a rare display of social unrest.

He adds that last time it happened, in July 2021, the regime contained it with crushing force.

Spinetto writes that the economic situation is a huge challenge for the Communist Party of Cuba that has controlled the nation’s life since Fidel Castro’s revolution in 1959.

He says that despite the archaic embargo posted on the nation by the US during the Cold War, it is not responsible for the food shortage, since Cuba has been able to import more than $7 billion worth of agricultural produce since 2001.

Spinetto adds that the embargo is also not responsible for the departure of 5% of Cuba's population (more than half a million residents) between 2021 and 2023. He says: "These are young, educated Cubans escaping hunger, economic mismanagement and political repression."

Spinetto writes that the crisis can’t be fixed "without fundamentally changing the country’s centralized, state-controlled model where bureaucrats...

Cuba 'on verge of total collapse' as country hit by blackouts and runs out of food and power - Daily Star

My Comment: Maybe our member who lives in Havana can give us some inside scoop on this?
 
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Parley said:
Cuba 'on verge of total collapse' as country hit by blackouts and runs out of food and power

The crisis in Cuba has seen its government approach the United Nations for aid to address its food shortage, as residents take to the streets in a rare sign of social unrest

Cuba is "on the verge of total collapse" as the country has been hit by blackouts with residents taking to the streets calling for "food and power".

The crisis has seen the Cuban government approach the United Nations for aid to address its food shortage. As the Caribbean island goes through its harshest economic crisis in three decades, the communist regime is resorting to hitherto unseen cries for help to other countries.

The country has been hit by US restrictions, a weak tourism industry, and a decaying domestic product which has left the proud independent nation on it's knees. In an article for Bloomberg, author Juan Pablo Spinetto writes that the situation has brought about a rare display of social unrest.

He adds that last time it happened, in July 2021, the regime contained it with crushing force.

Spinetto writes that the economic situation is a huge challenge for the Communist Party of Cuba that has controlled the nation’s life since Fidel Castro’s revolution in 1959.

He says that despite the archaic embargo posted on the nation by the US during the Cold War, it is not responsible for the food shortage, since Cuba has been able to import more than $7 billion worth of agricultural produce since 2001.

Spinetto adds that the embargo is also not responsible for the departure of 5% of Cuba's population (more than half a million residents) between 2021 and 2023. He says: "These are young, educated Cubans escaping hunger, economic mismanagement and political repression."

Spinetto writes that the crisis can’t be fixed "without fundamentally changing the country’s centralized, state-controlled model where bureaucrats...

Cuba 'on verge of total collapse' as country hit by blackouts and runs out of food and power - Daily Star

My Comment: Maybe our member who lives in Havana can give us some inside scoop on this?
Click to expand...

@CanCuba

What's going on?
 
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OICU2 said:
@CanCuba

What's going on?
Click to expand...

The boilover has been caused, primarily, by the deficit in electrical generation. Two years ago, it was the power plants that were in need of repair and caused widespread blackouts due to load-shedding. Now, the power plants are in better shape (relative term) but there's a shortage of fuel to run all the plants at their capacity.

Due to more demand than supply in the mid-2000s, Cuba installed several (I want to say around 100) centres that produced electricity for the national grid. These centres are essentially one, often several, diesel generators in shipping containers. Of course, these require diesel which has been in short supply the last few months.

And because of pressure from the US, Mexico has reduced the amount of diesel and crude that is being shipped to Cuba. Cuba does have crude deposits but their sulphur heavy making refining it expensive and complicated.

So the provinces other than Havana, Havana being a province of several municipalities, have endured often having more hours of blackouts than regular electrical supply. Not an entire province at one time but different "blocks" of a province and/or municipality. Havana does have load-shedding blackouts but things get spicy quickly in Havana.

So, in Santiago de Cuba on Sunday, people were in the streets. I have friends who live there and the internet was cut during the protests which didn't last that long. And weren't as widespread as the media would have people to believe. One friend lives only a couple hundred meters from where the major protest was and didn't even know it was happening until I called her and asked if she was okay.

And food....there's actually MORE food in Cuba than I've seen in my 20 years travelling/living here. But it's virtually all imported which means the prices correspond to USD/EUR prices when sold on the street. Which would be fine if the Cuban Peso (CUP) wasn't devaluing by the hour. In January of 2021, the CUP was at 24:1 to the USD. It's now 325:1 as of today.

So people, the vast majority, who get paid in CUP have far, far less buying power than they did 3 years ago. But because of the lack of domestic production, chicken, cooking oil, sugar (yes, sugar production has gone in the shitter), flour, etc, etc is imported. And the private corporations (legalized at the end of 2021) importing must use the informal street exchange of 325:1 when selling their good. And then they have to take all the CUP they've gathered, change it to USD/EUR (usually in the "informal" currency market) and then buy more goods from abroad.

And because of the demand for USD/EUR (any foreign currency really), the CUP continues to devalue.

Go to elTOQUE | Todas las historias cuentan and check out the graphs there. It's quite phenomenal. And no one has the slightest idea how to stop the devaluation of the CUP.

But, hey, it's almost beach weather!
 
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OICU2 said:
@CanCuba

What's going on?
Click to expand...

Oh, I should mention that the island's national grid has about 4MW generating capacity. Demand in the summer usually peaks around 3500MW giving a fair bit of leeway for lack of generating capacity for X, Y and Z reasons.

Demand right now is about 3300MW (unusally warm for March) and generating capacity is about 2100MW. A HUGE deficit of 1200MW. And when you consider that said deficit is over 1/3 of demand for the summer....well, doesn't look good.

So the government has recently stated that they're investing heavily in solar. To the tune of 2GW of solar parks by 2028, the first 1GW being finished (so they say) in 2025. But the calculations I've seen show that 1 watt of solar generation costs about $1 USD. So that's $2 BILLION USD for what they plan to invest. And it's anyone's guess where that money is going to come from.

Of course, that's just generation, not storage of said solar-generated electricity. Which is insanely expensive on that scale. So more solar generation during the day and then fossil fuel generation after the sun goes down? I'm sure someone will figure it out.

I'm planning on going full solar with at least 15MW battery storage for my place. And increasing my water storage (split between a cistern and tanks on the roof) to at LEAST 15,000 liters (just under 4,000 gallons). The infrastructure isn't great south of the Rio Grande, generally speaking, and it's even worse here. As long as I have lights and water, I can handle the rest.

Can't wait to go to the beach!
 
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CanCuba said:
Oh, I should mention that the island's national grid has about 4MW generating capacity. Demand in the summer usually peaks around 3500MW giving a fair bit of leeway for lack of generating capacity for X, Y and Z reasons.

Demand right now is about 3300MW (unusally warm for March) and generating capacity is about 2100MW. A HUGE deficit of 1200MW. And when you consider that said deficit is over 1/3 of demand for the summer....well, doesn't look good.

So the government has recently stated that they're investing heavily in solar. To the tune of 2GW of solar parks by 2028, the first 1GW being finished (so they say) in 2025. But the calculations I've seen show that 1 watt of solar generation costs about $1 USD. So that's $2 BILLION USD for what they plan to invest. And it's anyone's guess where that money is going to come from.

Of course, that's just generation, not storage of said solar-generated electricity. Which is insanely expensive on that scale. So more solar generation during the day and then fossil fuel generation after the sun goes down? I'm sure someone will figure it out.

I'm planning on going full solar with at least 15MW battery storage for my place.
Click to expand...
I'm interested in understanding this but the measurements don't make sense.

1. 4MW generating capacity vs. 3500MW demand. Is it perhaps 4GW generating capacity?
2. A 15MW battery? That's not a measure of battery capacity, and if was as simple as you meant MWh, that would be absurdly large, so I'm totally perplexed here. 15KWh is a pretty reasonable size for a residence.

For me it would be easier to comprehend if you kept all the power numbers in MW or GW instead of switching. And here's a tip: If the solar panels don't solve everything, fill the whole island up with wind turbines. They're even more reliable and consistent than solar panels :lol::rofl::lol:.
 
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