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The Lidio Ramón Pérez thermoelectric plant, located in the town of Felton, in the municipality of Mayarí, in the province of Holguín, was disconnected from the National Electric System (SEN) at 5:46 PM this Saturday, reported the Electric Union (UNE) through its social media in a brief statement reproduced by the official portal Cubadebate.
"The causes are currently being investigated," was all that the UNE stated, without specifying the source of the failure
The news was also shared by the official journalist Lázaro Manuel Alonso through his Facebook profile.
The fall of Felton worsened a day that was already critical for the island's electrical system, as the UNE had projected a deficit of 1,990 megawatts during peak demand hours, with only 1,090 MW available against a demand of 3,050 MW.
This deficit was already driven by the new shutdown of the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant, the largest plant in the country, which stopped functioning at midnight on Friday due to leaks in the boiler, marking its 14th outage from the SEN in 2026.
This was compounded by breakdowns at the thermoelectric plants Máximo Gómez and Ernesto Guevara, three units under maintenance in Mariel, Renté, and Nuevitas, and 106 distributed generation plants shut down due to lack of fuel, representing 890 MW without coverage.
Felton has shown a pattern of chronic instability throughout 2026. It left the SEN in February due to a false hydrogen sensor alarm, unit 1 went offline for 96 hours of maintenance on May 11, and on May 15, it failed again due to a low-pressure heater malfunction just hours after being reconnected.
Unit 2 of the plant has also been undergoing total reconstruction since April, further reducing the facility's available capacity.
The crisis this Saturday occurs within a context of sustained deterioration of the SEN. The previous Friday, the CTE Máximo Gómez 8 also left the SEN for unknown reasons, and on May 14, the worst deficit of the year was registered: 2,174 MW, with only 976 MW available.
The SEN has experienced seven total collapses in 18 months, including a national blackout on March 16, 2026, that lasted 29 hours and 29 minutes.
The fuel shortage is another determining factor. The Minister of Energy, Vicente de la O Levy, acknowledged that Cuba operated without any fuel reserves between December 2025 and May 2026, and warned that "2026 will be a tough year."
The desperation of the population in response to the blackouts has already led to spontaneous protests. Residents of Regla closed Maceo Street on Friday demanding water and electricity, while on June 3 and 4, there were pot-banging protests in El Vedado, Centro Habana, Playa, Habana Vieja, Cayo Hueso, and San Miguel del Padrón.
While the Cuban population endures blackouts of over 24 continuous hours, the UNE has not provided an estimated timeline for Felton's reintegration into the National Electric System nor has it explained the causes of the new failure.
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