Reuters: Cuba orders further cuts to power generation: newspaper
HAVANA (Reuters) - The Cuban government has ordered its state-run power system to further reduce electricity generation in the latest sign that a cash crunch exacerbated by new U.S. sanctions is taking an economic and human toll, a newspaper reported on Sunday.
Ciego de Avila’s provincial Communist Party newspaper, Invasor, reported that local generation would be cut 10 percent to save fuel as part of a nation-wide reduction ordered on April 18.
The report said cuts in fuel allocation for power generation begun in 2016 had so far spared the residential sector and essential services from blackouts but warned that could change.
More than 95 percent of the country’s electricity is generated by oil-fired plants.
Most business and infrastructure are state owned.
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Update: Cuba tells officials to reduce electricity consumption (ABC News/AP)
WNU Editor: These Cuban economic stats are revealing .... Foreign trade fell 25 percent from 2013 through 2017, with imports dropping to $11.3 billion from $15.6 billion. Bottom line .... the slowdown in the Cuban economy is going to continue. Venezuelan aid is going to decrease. And with U.S. citizens now free to sue foreign companies doing business with Cuba, it is going to get worse.
