Cuba woke up this Monday engulfed in darkness after a new total disconnection of the National Electric System (SEN).
The state-owned company Unión Eléctrica (UNE) confirmed the collapse through its social media with a brief statement: "A total disconnection of the National Electro-Energy System has occurred. The causes are being investigated. Further information will be provided."
What makes this collapse even more concerning is that, according to the brief note from the UNE itself, there were no recorded failures in the thermal units that were operational at the time of the blackout, leaving the technical origin of the event without an immediate explanation.
This is the seventh total blackout of the national electric system in the last 18 months, and it occurs in the worst energy context in the recent history of the island.
For this Monday, the projected deficit was between 2,200 and 2,230 MW, with a supply of only 1,000 MW against a demand of 3,100 MW.
The day before, on Sunday, the maximum impact had reached 2,201 MW at 10 PM, a record that UNE had already warned would be repeated or exceeded.
Among the structural causes of the collapse are multiple thermal units out of service: units 6 and 8 of the Máximo Gómez Thermal Power Plant (CTE) in Mariel, unit 1 of the Antonio Guiteras Thermal Power Plant (CTE) in Matanzas —which has accumulated 17 system outages so far in 2026 and has not received major maintenance since 2010— and unit 6 of the Diez de Octubre Thermal Power Plant (CTE) in Nuevitas.
In addition, 106 distributed generation plants remained inactive due to a lack of fuel, representing 890 MW unavailable.
Cuba has gone more than three months without receiving oil shipments, operating on solar energy, natural gas, and thermal power plants under precarious conditions.
The 54 photovoltaic solar parks in the country generated 4,679 MW/h on Sunday, with a peak power of 709 MW, a figure insufficient to offset the accumulated deficit.
The collapse this Monday is not an isolated event.
On July 4th, the province of Granma was completely disconnected from the SEN following a sudden frequency drop when the CTE Lidio Ramón Pérez was attempting to synchronize with the system.
The longest total blackout of the current cycle was on March 16, 2026, lasting for 29 hours and 29 minutes.
The crisis has overwhelmed the patience of the population. In Havana and Santiago de Cuba, pot-banging and spontaneous protests have been met with police operations.
In some areas of Matanzas, the outages have lasted up to 87 consecutive hours, while in Havana the average is 15 hours a day without electricity.
The process of restoration following a total disconnection is technically complex and can take several days, as it requires the establishment of regional microsystems before large thermoelectric plants can be reconnected.
The UNE did not provide an estimated timeframe for the restoration of the service.
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