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The Granma Electric Company enabled a charging station for cell phones and essential devices at its Comprehensive Customer Service Center, located on Amado Estévez Street between 5 and 5A, in Bayamo, between the BANDEC Bank and the Provincial Court, as an improvised and temporary response to the severe energy crisis affecting the eastern region.
The measure comes at the worst energy moment Cuba has experienced in recent years.
This Thursday, the deficit of the National Electroenergetic System reached a new record of 2,174 MW during the nighttime peak hours, with an available capacity of only 976 MW against a demand of 3,150 MW, leaving approximately 70% of the national territory without electricity.
Granma is one of the hardest-hit provinces. Power outages have lasted up to 24 hours daily in May 2026, and just this Thursday, the entire province was left without electricity following a frequency drop in the Contramaestre-Bayamo line.
The Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, publicly admitted the total shortage of fuel for electricity generation: "We have no fuel, no diesel, only accompanying gas," describing the situation as "severe, critical" and "extremely tense."
The shortage of fuel is the underlying structural cause. Cuba received only one oil ship between December 2025 and April 2026, while it needs eight monthly. Venezuela halted its shipments since November 2025, and Mexico practically suspended its shipments in January 2026.
A Russian donation of 100,000 tons of crude oil provided a temporary improvement in April, but it was depleted by early May.
In addition to the blackouts, there is vandalism targeting the electrical infrastructure.
In April, the theft of dielectric oil in the community of Julia, in Bayamo, left approximately 20,000 people without electricity for four days, prompting the company to deploy workers at its 61 isolated substations for around-the-clock monitoring.
The charging point opened this Thursday is part of a symbolic response to a crisis with no short-term solution.
According to the official statement, the space "is available to help keep your essential devices operational," and the company urged the public to come "in an orderly manner."
It is not the first time that Cuban authorities have resorted to such measures. In October 2025, the first secretary of the Communist Party in Holguín, Joel Queipo Ruiz, urged citizens to share power generators to charge cell phones among neighbors: "Those who have a generator should take advantage to charge cell phones, to provide energy, population to population."
Cuba has experienced at least seven total collapses of the electrical system in 18 months, including a national blackout lasting 29 hours and 29 minutes on March 16, 2026.
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