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Cuba woke up this Sunday engulfed in a new day of widespread blackouts, with the National Electric System (SEN) operating at less than half of the capacity needed to meet the country's demand.
According to the official report from the Electric Union (UNE), at 6:00 am the system's availability was merely 1,245 MW against a demand of 2,650 MW, leaving 1,385 MW uncovered since early in the morning.
The situation worsens as the day progresses.
By noon, an impact of 1,450 MW is expected, and the forecast for the nighttime peak hours is even more severe: a capacity of 1,215 MW against a demand of 3,100 MW, resulting in a deficit of 1,885 MW and a projected impact of 1,915 MW, which is equivalent to leaving more than 60% of the country without electricity simultaneously.
Saturday's event was equally devastating.
The UNE confirmed that "the service was affected by a capacity deficit for 24 hours and the impact persisted throughout the early morning hours," with a maximum impact of 1,826 MW at 9:10 PM.
In Havana, the situation was no different. The Electric Company reported that the service was interrupted for 24 hours the previous day, with the maximum impact reaching 367 MW at 11:30 PM.
In addition, it was necessary to shut down emergency circuits with an additional 105 MW without being able to restore the service.
At the end of their report, the six blocks and emergency circuits -309 MW- remained affected with no scheduled time for restoration.
The causes of the collapse are numerous and are piling up with no solution in sight. Four generating units are experiencing active failures at the CTE Máximo Gómez, Ernesto Guevara, Lidio Ramón Pérez, and Antonio Maceo.
Three other units are under maintenance at the CTE Mariel, Renté, and Nuevitas.
The most revealing figure is the fuel shortage: 106 distributed generation plants are shut down due to lack of fuel, totaling 890 MW, and the overall megawatts unavailable due to fuel amounts to 1,203 MW. Also out of service are the Patana de Regla, the Patana de Melones, the Mariel Fuel Plant, and the Moa Fuel Plant.
The 54 recently inaugurated photovoltaic solar parks contributed 2,999 MWh on Saturday, but their contribution is limited to daytime hours and does not address the nighttime deficit, which is when demand peaks.
The energy expert Jorge Piñón warned last Thursday that nearly 60% of the generating units from the country's eight thermoelectric plants were out of service, and that the situation "cannot be resolved" quickly if the same energy management model is maintained.
Citizen desperation has manifested in protests.
Last Wednesday, neighborhood residents of Luyanó took to the streets with pot banging after more than 30 hours without electricity or water, and on Sunday, June 7, residents of Regla blocked a street in front of the municipal government shouting, "We want power!"
The humanitarian impact of the crisis is severe. The UN reported in April more than and nearly half a million students with reduced school hours due to power outages, while 32,000 pregnant women are in a state of risk.
May 2026 closed with 1,311 registered protests and critical demonstrations in Cuba, the highest number since July 11, 2021, and the regime of Miguel Díaz-Canel has not yet presented a credible structural solution to a population that, as one Cuban summarized on social media, feels that “they don’t even give you explanations anymore, 50, 80, however many hours without electricity.”
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