The Electric Union (UNE) reported at 6:00 a.m. a capacity of only 1,000 MW compared to a demand of 2,223 MW, with a deficit of 1,266 MW that could rise to 2,000 MW during peak nighttime hours, leaving 63% of the national territory without electricity.
The immediate trigger of the crisis was the "unexpected shutdown" of the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant in Matanzas —the largest in the country— last Wednesday at 12:41 local time, due to a "leak in the boiler."
The failure disconnected the National Electroenergetic System (SEN) from Camagüey to Pinar del Río, including Havana, leaving between 6 and 7 million Cubans without electricity in 10 of the 15 provinces. Three hours after the collapse, only 2.5% of customers in the capital had service.
On Friday, the deficit reached 2,046 MW at 19:10, with an availability of only 1,015 MW against a demand of 3,050 MW. In Havana, blackouts extended up to 24 continuous hours, affecting 335 MW plus an additional 105 MW for emergency use. The repair of the Guiteras could take at least 72 hours, according to a sector official quoted by Radio Rebelde.
This was the fifth national blackout in a year and a half and the largest recorded in 2026. The deficit last Monday reached 2,025 MW at peak hour, affecting 64% of the territory, the highest level since 2022. Daily outages without breakdowns had already exceeded 20 hours in large regions before this week's collapse.
The crisis has structural roots that have been exacerbated by the collapse of fuel supplies. Seven of the 16 operational thermoelectric units are out of service due to breakdowns or maintenance. Diesel and fuel oil distributed generation, which accounts for 40% of the energy mix, has been halted since January due to a lack of fuel.
The oil supply plummeted following the capture of former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, which led Venezuela to cut its historical shipments of more than 26,000 barrels daily.
On January 29, Trump signed an executive order declaring Cuba an "unusual and extraordinary threat" to U.S. national security, after which Mexico also paused its shipments. Since January 9, only one tanker has docked in Cuba, carrying 84,000 barrels, which is less than 3,000 barrels per day, while the country needs 110,000 and only produces 40,000 internally.
The blackouts from this morning triggered pot-banging protests in Havana and Matanzas, reflecting the exhaustion of a population that has been enduring outages lasting more than 15 to 20 hours daily for months.
Jorge Piñón from the Energy Institute at the University of Texas warned that Cuba would face a "serious crisis in March without external oil" and estimated that the so-called "zero hour" — the total depletion of fuel reserves — could arrive by mid-month if no new tankers arrive. Piñón estimates that recovering Cuba's electrical system would require between 8 billion and 10 billion dollars and between 3 to 5 years of work.
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