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A significant drop in Internet traffic in Cuba was reported this Monday amid the widespread blackout caused by the total disconnection of the National Electric Power System (SEN), according to Radar from Cloudflare on X.
According to that platform, at 17:35 UTC, Internet traffic from the Island "dropped significantly," with a nearly immediate decrease of 65%, coinciding with the power outage confirmed by the Electric Union (UNE).
The Cloudflare report directly linked the drop in digital traffic to the collapse of the Cuban electrical system.
In its publication, the platform quoted the UNE, which had stated: “There has been a total disconnection of the National Electrical System.”
From that moment on, Cloudflare detected a sharp decrease in Internet traffic originating from Cuba, suggesting an immediate impact of the blackout on the country's connectivity.
The interruption of internet service occurred in the context of a widespread blackout that had already followed a day of severe energy crisis.
Another massive blackout in Cuba
According to UNE, the country experienced electrical service disruptions for 24 hours the previous day due to a capacity deficit, and these interruptions continued into the early hours of March 16.
The highest reported impact the day before was 1,891 megawatts at 7:20 p.m., a figure exceeding the forecast due to higher-than-estimated demand.
Before the complete disconnection of the SEN, the system was already operating under critical conditions.
At 6:00 a.m. on March 16, the UNE reported a generation capacity of only 1,140 megawatts against a demand of 2,347, with 1,220 megawatts affected at that time.
By noon, the company projected an impact of 1,250 megawatts, indicating a system operating well below the actual needs of the country.
The official report also described a very deteriorated situation in power generation. Among the units reported as out of service were Unit 5 of the Mariel CTE; Units 2 and 3 of the Santa Cruz CTE; Unit 2 of the Felton CTE; and Units 3 and 6 of the Antonio Maceo CTE. In addition, maintenance was being carried out on Unit 6 of the Mariel CTE, Unit 5 of the Nuevitas CTE, and Unit 4 of the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes CTE in Cienfuegos.
UNE added that there were 492 megawatts out of service due to thermal limitations.
Despite that scenario, the company still anticipated the entry of unit 4 of the CTE Cienfuegos with 80 megawatts during peak hours, which was then in the process of starting up.
With that forecast, a availability of 1,220 megawatts was estimated against a maximum demand of 3,150, which indicated a deficit of 1,930 megawatts and a projected impact of 1,960 megawatts during peak consumption hour. In other words, the crisis was already deep before the total collapse.
The most striking detail of the episode is that the complete disconnection of the SEN was not initially accompanied by a concrete technical explanation.
Blackout with no clear cause
The UNE stated on Facebook that “no malfunctions have been reported in any of the thermal units that were operational at the time of the disconnection from the SEN,” while the Ministry of Energy and Mines communicated that the causes are still under investigation.
Subsequently, UNE itself reported that microsystems were beginning to operate in several territories of the country and that Energás had a generating unit in service, indicating the start of a partial recovery process.
However, the report does not provide a complete assessment of the restoration nor does it detail how long the disruption of Internet access lasted.
In parallel, the report notes that the 52 new photovoltaic solar parks had generated 4,262 megawatt-hours, with a maximum output delivered of 732 megawatts during peak hours.
However, that contribution did not prevent either the worsening of the energy crisis or the total collapse of the system, and by extension, it also did not stop the significant impact on digital connectivity reported by Cloudflare.
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