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Cuba awakens this Thursday engulfed in a new day of widespread blackouts: according to the official information note from the Electric Union (UNE), the expected deficit for the peak nighttime hours will reach 1,890 MW, with an estimated impact of 1,920 MW on a maximum demand of 3,000 MW.
At 6:00 AM, the availability of the National Electric System was only 980 MW compared to a demand of 2,500 MW, leaving 1,522 MW without service since early morning.
Wednesday was even worse: the service was interrupted for 24 hours and the maximum impact reached 2,080 MW at 8:00 PM, as confirmed by UNE itself.
In Havana, the Electric Company confirmed on Facebook that the service was interrupted for 24 hours the previous day, with a peak impact of 430 MW at 7:30 PM.
"It was necessary to shut down circuits due to EMERGENCY with an additional 215 MW," without being able to restore the service.
The most devastating factor remains the lack of fuel: 106 distributed generation plants are currently shut down for this reason, equivalent to 890 MW, and the Regla Power Plant, the Melones Power Plant, the Mariel Fuel Plant, and the Moa Fuel Plant also remain out of service.
The total unavailable megawatts due to a lack of fuel amounts to 1,203 MW, more than half of the total deficit.
In addition to the fuel outages, there are multiple technical failures: five units from the CTE Antonio Guiteras, Máximo Gómez, Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, and Lidio Ramón Pérez are out of service, with an additional 277 MW out of operation due to limitations in thermal generation.
About the CTE Antonio Guiteras - the largest generating unit in the country, with a capacity of about 300 MW and 14 shutdowns accumulated so far in 2026 - journalist José Miguel Solís reported this morning that "after the hydraulic test on the boiler, a leak area has been identified, which is currently being addressed."
Specialists consulted by Solís estimated that the unit "could be providing around 100 MW during peak demand hours, since there are still nine hours left and the unit only needs six hours to attempt synchronization," as long as no new complications arise.
The UNE also anticipates the addition of unit three of the CTE Energás Varadero, providing an additional 30 MW for the night peak, which would raise the total availability to just 1,110 MW: a figure significantly lower than the 3,000 MW that the country will require.
The 54 photovoltaic solar parks contributed 2,360 MWh on Wednesday, with a maximum output of 386 MW during the daytime, a contribution insufficient to offset the significant nighttime deficit.
The collapse this Thursday is not an isolated incident.
The Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, publicly acknowledged that oil reserves were "virtually depleted" and that "we have absolutely no diesel," while the Electric Company of Granma warned on Wednesday that Cuba "only generates a third of what it needs".
The accumulated desperation has overflowed into the streets: the Cuban Conflict Observatory recorded 1,245 protests in March 2026 and another 1,133 in April, a 29.5% increase compared to the same month the previous year, featuring pot-banging protests and street blockades in Havana, Granma, and other provinces.
The regime's response has been the deployment of special forces, internet blackouts, and detentions: Cubalex documented at least 14 arrests in Havana related to protests over power outages since March 6.
The worst record of the year remains May 14, when the deficit reached 2,174 MW, but the trend of recent weeks indicates that Cuba remains trapped in an energy collapse with no solution in sight under the dictatorship's management.
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