Cuba aims to ease electricity woes with new Turkish floating power plant
Havana, Feb 1 (EFE).- A Turkish floating power plant has arrived in Havana Harbor to help ease electricity shortages in Cuba, the Caribbean nation’s Energy and Mines Ministry said Wednesday.
That 240 MW plant, known as a powership, is the eighth of its kind that Cuba has leased from Turkish energy company Karadeniz Holding.
Powerships complement Cuba’s thermoelectric power plants (CTEs), which generate more than half of the electricity consumed on the island.
Most of Cuba’s eight CTEs have been in operation for more than 40 years, even though the average useful life for those facilities is 30 years.
A 110 MW floating power plant, housed on the MV Karadeniz Powership Irem Sultan, arrived in Havana in November.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel traveled to Turkey in November as part of an international tour that also took him to Algeria, China and Russia.
During the trip, “essential matters” for the island were addressed, “primarily related to the electric power sector,” the head of state said then.
Blackouts caused by the malfunctioning of antiquated power plants, a lack of fuel and scheduled maintenance have occurred regularly for the past several months, although they have been less frequent since the end of 2022.
The government says more power outages can be expected during the first few months of this year but that they will be shorter in duration.
Last year, blackouts lasted more than 10 hours a day in some parts of the Communist-ruled island. EFE
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