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The Electric Union (UNE) warns this Monday that Cuba will face an estimated shortfall of 2,045 MW during peak nighttime hours, with a mere availability of 1,035 MW against a projected demand of 3,050 MW.
The data appears in the informative note of the National Electric System dated June 8, 2026. By 06:00 hours this Monday, 1,450 MW were already reported as affected, with a demand of 2,550 MW, which tripled the available capacity. By noon, UNE estimates that the impact will rise to 1,650 MW.
On Sunday, it closed with a maximum impact of 1,953 MW at 9:20 PM, which means the country has been in an energy abyss for consecutive days.
The lack of fuel is the most devastating factor. There are 106 distributed generation plants out of service for this reason, amounting to 890 MW lost. Including the Regla and Melones barges and the Fuel Plants of Mariel and Moa, which are also non-operational, the total unavailable megawatts due to fuel reaches 1,203 MW.
Units of the thermoelectric plants Antonio Guiteras, Máximo Gómez (Unit 6), Ernesto Guevara de la Serna (Units 1, 2, and 3), and Lidio Ramón Pérez —the most powerful in the country— are currently out of service, with Unit 2 breaking down again just one day after being reconnected to the system with only 180 MW.
Other units at the CTE Mariel, Renté, and Nuevitas are undergoing maintenance, and the limitations in thermal generation account for an additional 295 MW offline.
The 54 photovoltaic solar parks contributed 2,724 MWh on Sunday, with a maximum power output of 360 MW during the day. However, this generation disappears at nightfall, precisely when demand peaks and the deficit becomes unsustainable.
The events of this Monday are part of a downward spiral that intensified in 2026. On May 13, a deficit of 2,153 MW was recorded, and the following day it was surpassed with a historic record of 2,174 MW. Throughout the first week of June, power outages remained around or above 2,000 MW during peak hours.
The system has experienced at least seven total collapses in the last 18 months. The most severe occurred on March 16, when the island was left without electricity for 29 hours and 29 minutes, followed by a second national blackout on March 22.
The government had anticipated in December 2025 that 2026 would be a "difficult" year in terms of energy.
In May, there were 1,311 protests across Cuba related to blackouts and living conditions, a sign that citizen fatigue after decades of structural collapse has reached a breaking point.
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