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The energy crisis in Cuba once again revealed its worst face this Saturday, when the Electric Union (UNE) provided a new report confirming the state's inability to prevent the country from remaining trapped in a cycle of blackouts that has already become routine.
The outlook described by the state-owned company leaves little room for optimism: power cuts for almost the entire previous day, issues that reemerged at dawn, and an electrical system that operates far below what is necessary to meet the country's minimum demand.
According to the UNE, on Friday the service was interrupted from 5:17 AM until after midnight today. Just 10 minutes after 5:00 AM, the disruptions began again.
The maximum drop from the previous day, 1,429 MW at 6:00 PM, -exceeding the forecasted 1,349- starkly illustrates the extent of the collapse.
This figure was further impacted by the loss of an additional 128 MW in the eastern part of the country due to the effects of Hurricane Melissa, which ultimately worsened the already precarious generation capacity.
In its morning update, the entity revealed that the availability of the National Electric System (SEN) at 6:00 AM was only 1,660 MW, against a demand of 1,950 MW. This imbalance resulted in an impact of 340 MW, and according to official calculations, it is projected that by noon the interruption will reach about 650 MW.
The report also noted that several thermal power plants remain offline due to breakdowns—such as units from the Antonio Maceo, Felton, and Nuevitas plants—while others are halted for maintenance in Santa Cruz del Norte and the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes plant in Cienfuegos.
Furthermore, nearly half a gigawatt of thermal generation is completely out of service, which deepens the vulnerability of the national electrical system.
The situation worsens when analyzing the impact of the fuel shortage.
The UNE revealed that 80 distributed generation plants were unable to operate, which removed 737 MW from the expected contribution. Additionally, 94 MW were rendered unusable due to a lack of lubricants.
Overall, the lack of energy resources prevented the use of 831 MW, a figure that alone explains part of the chaos the country is facing.
During peak hours, the outlook is even more discouraging: with a forecasted demand of 3,080 MW and an availability of only 1,660 MW, the deficit will rise to 1,420 MW, which will necessitate outages of up to 1,490 MW if conditions remain unchanged.
In an attempt to demonstrate some progress, the UNE mentioned the production of 30 new photovoltaic solar parks, which generated 1,441 MWh and contributed a maximum of 523 MW during peak irradiation hours.
However, this data hardly serves as a remedy for a system that needs much more than solar energy to compensate for years of deterioration, insufficient investments, and technical and administrative decisions that have failed to halt the decline.
The Electric Company of Havana, for its part, issued a separate report acknowledging a 200 MW impact in the capital at 6:10 PM on Friday, with interruptions that began around 10:00 AM. Service was restored at 8:00 PM.
"In the early hours, there was NO impact due to shortage," specifies the note on Facebook.
The scenario described in both reports reflects a reality that the government has failed to address for years: an aging electrical system, dependent on fuel that it does not have, with thermal plants in permanent crisis and a management unable to anticipate, prevent, or mitigate the severity of the problem.
Meanwhile, citizens continue to bear the cost of inefficiency with sleepless nights, unproductive days, and a future that grows a little dimmer each day.
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