Erol Bey floating power plant leaves Cuba with 63 megawatts of capacity

The Erol Bey floating power plant left Cuba on Monday, November 2, sailing from the port of Havana at about 2:30 p.m. local time. The Turkish unit has an installed capacity of 63 megawatts. Its departure follows six other floating plants that had already left the island, bringing the number of departures of this kind mentioned in the count to seven.

The 63 megawatts represent Erol Bey's installed capacity and provide a measure of the generating contribution no longer present in the country. The departure reduces the number of floating units located in Cuba and comes amid an energy emergency. A plant's nominal capacity describes its installed power, while its departure removes that installation from the available group.

In April, the Ministry of Energy and Mines reported that two plants of this type remained in Havana: Erol Bey and Belgin Sultan. The first was therefore part of the pair of units the agency identified in the capital at that time. The November departure marks a change from that count and places the vessel among the floating plants that later left Cuba.

The departure comes while blackouts affect the country. Information about the energy crisis describes outages lasting more than 20 hours and others continuing for as long as three consecutive days. Those references reflect the duration of reported cuts in the context of the emergency, which affects the availability of electricity service for the population.

Deteriorating infrastructure and fuel shortages are also cited among the factors worsening Cuba's energy situation. In that setting, the departure of a unit with 63 megawatts of installed capacity adds a specific reduction to the group of floating plants present on the island. Erol Bey had been identified months earlier as one of the two units of this type remaining in Havana.