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Cuba woke up this Thursday engulfed in another day of widespread blackouts.
According to the report from the Unión Eléctrica (UNE) in its daily report, the national electric system remains collapsed, with a deficit exceeding 1,100 megawatts (MW) during peak hours.
This means that more than 40% of the country's demand cannot be met, which will leave millions of Cubans without electricity for much of the day and night.
UNE itself acknowledged that the outages lasted for 24 hours on Wednesday and that early Thursday morning began with power cuts.
The highest reported impact was 1,311 MW at 6:10 PM, a figure that reveals the magnitude of the collapse.
This situation is compounded by an additional 414 MW out of service in the eastern part of the country, between Las Tunas and Guantánamo, due to the damage caused by the hurricane Melissa, which left serious damage to lines and substations.
A broken system
At 6:00 am, the total system availability was just 1,720 MW, compared to a demand of 2,100 MW, which represented a deficit of 380 MW.
At peak hours, an impact of 500 MW is estimated.
The situation will worsen by evening: during peak hours, the UNE estimates a demand of 2,850 MW and a supply that will not exceed 1,760 MW, resulting in a deficit of at least 1,090 MW, with an impact of 1,160 MW.
The regime attempts to attribute the collapse to breakdowns and scheduled maintenance, yet the situation reveals a structural deterioration of the electrical system, lacking real investments and long-term planning.
Currently, Unit 2 of the Felton thermoelectric plant is out of service due to a breakdown, along with two other units in Santa Cruz del Norte and Cienfuegos that are under maintenance.
A total of 653 MW remain unavailable due to technical limitations in thermal plants, a consistent issue in recent months.
Lack of fuel and abandonment
The crisis is worsening due to the chronic fuel shortage, which is paralyzing a significant portion of distributed generation.
The UNE reports 60 power plants out of service due to a lack of diesel, which amounts to a reduction of 519 MW, and another 131 MW unavailable due to a lack of lubricants.
In total, 650 MW are lost due to the lack of basic energy resources, reflecting the logistical and financial collapse of the country.
Although the government insists on promoting the "advancements" in renewable energy, the results are insignificant compared to the magnitude of the crisis.
The 22 new photovoltaic solar parks in the west and center of the Island only contributed 420 MW at their peak, an amount that fails to compensate for even a fraction of the losses from the thermal system.
Endless blackouts and empty promises
In Havana, the provincial Electric Company reported that the capital experienced blackouts for nearly 11 hours on Wednesday, with a peak impact of 174 MW at 7:00 PM.
The service was restored shortly before 9:00 PM.
"It was not necessary to affect the planned blocks (4 and 6) at 10:00 PM. In the early morning, there was no impact due to a deficit," specifies the note published on Facebook.
The reality in Havana's neighborhoods remains the same: intermittent outages, circuit overloads, and an exasperated population.
While the UNE publishes daily reports filled with technical jargon, the population remains in the dark, without refrigeration for food, lacking ventilation in the heat, and without electricity to sustain work or study.
More than a decade of unfulfilled promises, lack of maintenance, corruption, and misallocation of resources have led to a crumbling energy system, incapable of meeting the minimum demands of the population.
Cubans no longer await solutions, just the next blackout.
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