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The Electric Company of Havana (EELH) disconnected dozens of circuits in the Cuban capital on Wednesday, citing a "national generation emergency," according to reports from the throughout the day and into the early morning.
The first alerts came in at 4:28 PM, when the EELH announced the failure of circuits in areas such as Nuevo Santiago, Palmarito, La Encubadora, Los Cocos, Marañón, Rincón, Alturas del Cacahual, La Catalina, La Castellana, Dulce Nombre, and Santa María del Rosario, among others.
Minutes later, at 4:51 PM, the same issue caused a power outage in the Underground Zone of Habana Vieja.
At 19:24 and 19:25, new emergency alerts regarding power generation added the Underground Zone of Centro Habana and the circuits Camilo Cienfuegos, Villa Panamericana, Monte Barreto, and Naval to the list.
Alongside the emergency generation cuts, the system recorded at least two episodes of Automatic Frequency Disconnection (AFD), a protection mechanism that disconnects circuits when the network frequency falls below 60 Hz to prevent a total collapse.
The first DAF, at 4:54 PM, affected areas of Havana del Este —Alturas de Boca Ciega, Santa María del Mar, and Villa Mégano— and San Miguel del Padrón —Martín Pérez, Ciudamar, Carolina, and Alturas de Luyanó—.
The second incident occurred at 7:30 PM and affected various circuits in different municipalities of the capital. In both cases, the EELH reported that service was restored shortly afterward.
At 22:02, the company published an update that outlines the extent of the problem: 418 MW distributed across six affected blocks, with Block 6 having accumulated 24 hours and 35 minutes without electricity, Block 5 with 23 hours and 40 minutes, and Block 3 with 13 hours and 20 minutes.
In addition to all this, dozens of local outages were reported: damaged transformers in Guanabacoa, Lisa, Playa, Arroyo Naranjo, Cerro, Plaza, Marianao, Boyeros, 10 de Octubre, San Miguel del Padrón, and Habana del Este; a faulty cable in Guanabacoa that left Chivás and sections of Vía Blanca without power; a broken bridge in Playa; and pending work at the Apolo and Cotorro substations.
The event occurs at the worst moment of the Cuban energy crisis in recent history: this Wednesday, the national generation deficit reached 2,100 MW, with an availability of just 1,100 MW against a demand of 3,200 MW.
On Tuesday, Cuba completed 24 consecutive hours of disruption with a peak of 2,211 MW without service at 10:00 PM, according to data from the Electric Union (UNE).
The UNE announced for July the reintegration of about 400 MW through maintenance work on six thermoelectric units —Mariel 6, Nuevitas 6, Santa Cruz 3, Renté 5, Renté 6, and Mariel 5—, but acknowledged that this figure will not be sufficient to meet national demand.
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