Cuba nears 2,000 MW of blackouts again this Wednesday, with no relief in sight

Cuba projects nearly 1,905 MW of blackouts during the nighttime peak this Wednesday. The availability covers less than 40% of the national demand.



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Cuba is facing another day of widespread blackouts this Wednesday, with an expected impact of 1,905 MW during the evening peak hours, according to the official report from the Electric Union published this morning.

At 6:00 AM, the availability of the National Electric System was only 1,020 MW compared to a demand of 2,570 MW, leaving 1,600 MW without coverage. By noon, an impact of 1,450 MW was expected, and at the nighttime peak, the maximum demand will reach 3,150 MW with an availability of just 1,265 MW, representing a deficit of 1,885 MW.

Tuesday's day was equally devastating. "Yesterday, the service was affected by a capacity deficit for 24 hours, and the impact persisted throughout the morning hours," the Electricity Union acknowledged.

The maximum impact reached 2,110 MW at 10:00 PM, exacerbated by a failure at the Apolo 110 kV substation in Havana that caused the shutdown of units 6 and 8 at the Mariel thermoelectric plant and unit 3 at the Renté plant.

Among the main active incidents this Wednesday are outages at Unit 6 of the Máximo Gómez power plant, Unit 2 of the Ernesto Guevara De La Serna power plant, Unit 2 of the Lidio Ramón Pérez power plant, and Unit 5 of the Antonio Maceo power plant.

Additionally, 106 distributed generation plants are out of service due to lack of fuel, amounting to 890 MW, while the Regla and Melones power barges and the fuel plants in Mariel and Moa also remain inoperative. The total megawatts unavailable due to fuel shortages reaches 1,203.

The Guiteras thermal power plant, the most powerful in the country, is once again in the process of restarting after experiencing between nine and ten system outages so far in 2026. The Electric Union expects Guiteras to contribute 200 MW to the nighttime peak, although its history of recurring failures raises little confidence.

The 54 photovoltaic solar parks installed by the regime contributed 3,342 MWh on Tuesday, with a maximum output of 497 MW at noon, but that contribution disappears during the nighttime hours, when demand is higher and blackouts worsen.

The crisis has dragged on for months without signs of improvement. On June 1, the maximum impact was 2,029 MW, and on May 13, a record deficit of 2,153 MW was recorded.

This Tuesday, the Electric Company of Holguín confirmed that the population of that province would have only three hours of electricity per day. In many inland areas, outages exceed 24 consecutive hours, and social media is flooded with reports from neighborhoods that have gone two to three days without electricity.

Desperation has overflowed onto the streets. Just this Wednesday, there were protests in El Vedado along with a police presence. In previous weeks, there were protests in Alamar that ended in repression, protests in Cayo Hueso and Centro Habana, and residents of Marianao who blocked streets after more than twenty hours without electricity chanting, "We want power and food!"

The Cuban Observatory of Conflicts recorded 1,133 protests in April 2026 alone, of which 153 were related to public services, especially power outages. This figure reflects the level of frustration accumulated by a population that has spent years paying the price for an energy infrastructure destroyed by decades of mismanagement by the regime.

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CiberCuba Editorial Team

A team of journalists committed to reporting on Cuban current affairs and topics of global interest. At CiberCuba, we work to deliver truthful news and critical analysis.