Nationwide blackout in Cuba due to disconnection from the National Electric System

The strong winds associated with Hurricane Rafael, which has intensified as it moves toward the western part of Cuba, caused the disconnection of the National Electricity System (SEN) this Wednesday.

The Electric Union (UNE) reported on Facebook that "at 2:48 p.m., strong winds caused by the intense hurricane Rafael resulted in the disconnection of the National Electric System."

“Contingency protocols are in effect,” noted the brief statement.

This Wednesday, the UNE announced that once the winds of Hurricane Rafael reach 60 km/h, a "voluntary disconnection" of the electrical circuits in the areas affected by the winds would be carried out to prevent damage to infrastructure and protect people's lives.

"Once the winds of Hurricane Rafael reach 60 km/h, a controlled disconnection of the distribution circuits will be carried out to prevent accidents and failures in the electrical networks," noted the MINEM in a post on X.

A similar statement was made by Lázaro Guerra Hernández, general director of Electricity at the aforementioned ministry, in remarks to Cuban Television.

"As the winds increase and reach 60 km/h, we will voluntarily disconnect to prevent both damage to infrastructure and harm to people," he said.

He emphasized that this will happen as the winds begin to increase in the western area to prevent such a situation.

"We always do that; every time an event of this nature occurs, we take precautions to prevent damage to the infrastructure and possible harm to individuals from the fall of any energized conductor. It is always important to proceed with the automatic disconnection of the circuits when winds exceed 60 km/h," he concluded.

Following the collapse of the general SEN last October, Vicente De La O Levy, Cuba's Minister of Energy and Mines, addressed comments regarding another possible general failure, assuring that the conditions are not conducive to a widespread blackout, although he did confirm that "the electrical system is fragile."

"The conditions are not such that the SEN would collapse; the system is weak, there is a significant deficit in generation, particularly regarding fuel, but we are not at zero," wrote the official on the social media platform X.

However, at 6:08 p.m. this Tuesday, Cuba reported an impact on electrical service of 1,750 MW, the highest figure in recent months, due to a deficit in generation capacity.