The Gibara 1 and Gibara 2 circuits recorded 22 hours and 28 minutes of accumulated electrical outage by the close of the report from the Holguín Electric Company as of 10:22 this Friday.
A previous report from the same day, issued at 08:43, had already recorded 20 hours and 44 minutes of interruptions in those same circuits of the coastal municipality of Gibara.
The figures do not allow us to assert that this represents an uninterrupted outage, nor can they be extrapolated to the entire municipality or province. They correspond to records of individual events from the electric company and reflect the accumulated duration of the impact on those two specific circuits.
The provincial situation is equally severe. As of the listing closure at 11:25, the maximum recorded downtime across the province of Holguín reached 23 hours and 27 minutes. The electricity demand served in the province was only 60 MW, a minimal fraction of the 240 MW required by the region, which leaves most circuits with only a few hours of electricity during rotation.
At the national level, the forecast for the electrical peak this Friday estimates a availability of 840 MW against a demand of 2,800 MW, with a projected deficit of 1,960 MW and an estimated impact of 1,990 MW, categorized as a "Critical" situation. This figure exceeds the forecast from the previous day by 50 MW.
The circuits of Gibara exhibit a recurring pattern of prolonged interruptions throughout 2026. On October 18, Gibara 2 accumulated 32 hours and 46 minutes without service; on October 17, Gibara 1 reached 25 hours and 19 minutes; on September 3, both circuits reached 26 hours and two minutes. Interruptions exceeding 20 hours have regularly occurred since at least August 2026.
The provincial context further exacerbates the situation. In mid-October, the Electric Company of Holguín suspended the circuit rotation every 12 hours — which was already irregular in practice — citing the "complex situation of the National Electroenergetic System," and maintained supply only for the circuits that serve Lenin Hospital.
That day, the Banes 2 circuit, Tanganica branch, had been without electricity for 43 hours and 15 minutes.
The public reaction to that measure was one of frustration and irony. “When did the remaining circuits have a fixed rotation of every 12 hours? They scheduled them whenever they could or wanted,” wrote an internet user. Another summed up the general sentiment with a question: “What rotation?”
The structural cause of the crisis is the extreme deficit between available generation and national demand, compounded by recurring breakdowns in multiple thermal power plants. Cuba has experienced eight total disconnections from the National Electric System so far in 2026, the most recent on September 18th.
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