
Related videos:
Cuba faces another day of massive electricity cuts this Tuesday: the Unión Eléctrica forecasts an impact of 2,082 MW during peak evening hours, with a mere availability of 1,148 MW against a projected maximum demand of 3,200 MW, resulting in an expected deficit of 2,052 MW.
According to the informative note from the state agency, on Monday the electricity service experienced interruptions throughout the 24 hours, including the early morning, due to a lack of generation capacity. The largest impact was recorded at 8:50 PM, when the deficit reached 2,140 MW affecting all provinces of the country.
Three thermoelectric units remain out of service: Unit 6 of the Máximo Gómez Thermoelectric Plant in the Special Development Zone of Mariel; Unit 6 of the Diez de Octubre Thermoelectric Plant in Nuevitas; and Unit 2 of the Lidio Ramón Pérez Thermoelectric Plant in Felton.
Four other facilities are under maintenance: Unit 5 of Máximo Gómez, Unit 3 of the Ernesto Guevara De La Serna Thermal Power Plant in Santa Cruz, Units 5 and 6 of the Antonio Maceo Thermal Power Plant in Renté, and Unit 5 of Diez de Octubre.
This is in addition to the fact that 106 distributed generation plants remain out of service due to a lack of fuel, along with the Patana de Regla, the Patana de Melones, the Central Fuel of Mariel, and the Central Fuel of Moa.
The 54 photovoltaic solar parks generated 5,011 MWh on Monday, with a maximum power output of 708 MW, but their contribution vanishes during night hours, precisely when demand peaks and the system collapses.
The situation this Tuesday arises just five days after the historic record of electrical deficit in Cuba, recorded on June 25 when the impact reached 2,208 MW.
The Antonio Guiteras Thermoelectric Plant, the largest in the country, rejoined the grid in the early hours of Monday, but its return did not ease the crisis: by six in the morning, the total availability was merely 1,100 MW compared to a demand of 2,800 MW. The plant has experienced 16 outages this year and has not undergone major maintenance since 2010, with damage to over 500 tubes in the economizer.
The plant director, Román Pérez Castañeda, acknowledged in May that the facility requires a 180-day shutdown for comprehensive intervention, but he admitted that "the country's situation still does not allow for it."
The causes of the crisis are structural: decades without investment in infrastructure, aging thermoelectric plants, and the interruption since January 2026 of the Venezuelan oil supply, which provided between 25,000 and 30,000 barrels daily. The impact on the population is devastating: blackouts lasting 20 to 24 hours a day in Havana, outages exceeding 48 hours in Granma and Santiago de Cuba, and up to 85 consecutive hours without electricity in Matanzas. Between March and April 2026, over 2,300 protests related to the outages were recorded, marking the worst energy collapse in recent Cuban history.
Filed under: