The Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, acknowledged this Wednesday that power outages in Havana exceed 20 to 22 hours daily, and provided a technical explanation to justify why the capital receives a different treatment in the distribution of electricity cuts.
In a press conference about the national energy crisis, De la O Levy described the situation in the capital in stark terms: “In Havana, the blackouts today exceed 20, 22 hours. And when they do come, it’s for 2 hours, an hour and a half, 2 hours, 3 hours in some circuits, 4 hours, and we go back to 20, 22 hours. That’s how it is in the capital.”
The central argument of the minister revolves around the so-called DAF circuits, which stands for Automatic Firing by Frequency.
These circuits cannot be turned off because they automatically open and close to regulate the frequency of the electrical system and prevent a widespread collapse.
"If that circuit is already off, it cannot perform the function of regulating and protecting the national system," explained De la O Levy.
The reason these circuits are concentrated in Havana is, according to the minister, purely technical: the capital is the province with the highest electricity demand in the country.
"The circuits with the highest consumption are the ones that regulate frequency the best, because when they open, they release a certain amount of power that allows for better regulation," he explained.
"If the DAF circuits were located in provinces with lower consumption, the regulatory effect would be insufficient and 'would not achieve the intended objective,' he stated."
Additionally, Havana also has the highest number of protected circuits and the greatest density of hospitals in the country, factors that, according to the minister, "make maneuverability" of the system more difficult in the capital.
Regarding the DAF shots, De la O Levy reported that in recent days they have decreased compared to previous days, thanks to the regulation of the photovoltaic solar parks: "When the parks were not regulated, there were many more DAF shots."
The minister also acknowledged that the planning of power outages begins at midnight in the National Load Dispatch Center so that by seven in the morning the public is aware of the day’s forecast, but he warned that unexpected events can disrupt everything.
He cited a recent failure at the Santa Cruz thermoelectric plant as an example: "The boiler is fine, the automatic system is fine, the generator is fine, everything is fine, but there is a fault in the external water supply to the unit."
Such types of breakdowns—along with the sargassum entering Energás or the unexpected boiler failures—occur "every day, several times a day" and lead to the violations that irritate the population.
The backdrop of the crisis is the fuel shortages. From December 2025 until weeks before the conference, Cuba did not receive a single ship with fuel, which the minister himself described as "the main cause of the long hours of outages."
The only relief came with a donation from Russia: 100,000 tons of crude oil that were processed at the Cienfuegos refinery and began to be distributed in mid-April, even allowing for several days without blackouts in Havana.
But that fuel ran out in early May, just as temperatures were rising in anticipation of summer, leaving the system "with no reserves at all."
The day before the conference, blackouts affected 61% of Cuba during peak demand hours, with a record impact of 2,113 MW recorded at 8:40 PM.
In December 2025, De la O Levy himself had already warned that 2026 would be a "difficult" year and that "the blackouts would not be eliminated," a prediction that reality has far exceeded.
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