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The Electric Company of Havana (EELH) reported this Tuesday that supply has been restored to 131 distribution circuits in the capital, benefiting 396,447 customers with a power of 269.6 MW.
The figure represents only 46% of the city, following the total collapse of the National Electric System (SEN) that occurred on Monday afternoon.
The official statement from the EELH warns that the restoration is progressing “gradually as conditions of the SEN allow,” without providing specific timelines for total recovery.
The EELH indicated that citizens can contact the Telephone Assistance Center (18888) or the Command Post set up for the emergency, using the numbers 76463282 to 76463286.
The seventh nationwide blackout in 18 months
Monday's collapse is the seventh total blackout of the National Electrical System (SEN) in the last 18 months and the third in 2026, as confirmed by the Electric Union. The immediate technical cause was the outage of Unit No. 6 at the Nuevitas thermoelectric plant in Camagüey, which triggered a cascading disconnection. That day, the system had only 1,000 MW available against a demand of 3,100 MW.
The director of the National Cargo Office, Félix Estrada Rodríguez, confirmed that the restoration began in Jaruco, Artemisa, with support from the Energy Storage System, and extended to form an interconnected corridor from Mariel to Sancti Spíritus. "Today, the most important thing is to achieve the startup of the units of 'Céspedes' [Carlos Manuel de Céspedes Thermoelectric Power Plant, in Cienfuegos], in order to ensure the continued restoration of the system," declared the official.
The Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, posted on the social media platform X that the priority is to advance towards the east.
"With the electrical system linked from Havana to Sancti Spíritus and the start of the CTE 'Céspedes' units initiated, our priority is to reach Felton and continue," he wrote.
Havana: 46% recovered, 54% in the dark
While the EELH highlights impressive progress figures, the reality in Havana's neighborhoods tells a different story. Citizens from various municipalities report areas experiencing over 40 consecutive hours without electricity, combined with days without access to drinking water.
"Guanabo has been without electricity for 41 hours and without water for a week. How much longer will this abuse continue?" a neighbor reported in the comments of the official statement. From La Lisa, another resident described their municipality as a deserted place: "La Lisa is a ghost municipality; it has been days without power and water."
The complaints also point to a distribution perceived as arbitrary. "The UNE provides electricity to whomever they want," stated a citizen.
Another summarized the situation with bitterness: “It’s an eternal blackout, before the SEN, with the SEN, and without the SEN.”
There are also reports of cases where the service was restored and then removed without explanation.
Structural crisis with no solution in sight
The backdrop of this emergency is not temporary. Cuba has gone over three months without receiving shipments of oil, and 106 distributed generation plants remain offline due to a lack of diesel, resulting in 890 MW unavailable. The CTE Antonio Guiteras has experienced 17 system outages so far in 2026 and has not received major maintenance since 2010.
This crisis has overwhelmed public patience. Since July 1st, pot-banging and protests have erupted in multiple municipalities of Havana such as Cerro, La Lisa, Regla, and Marianao, met with police operations and internet outages.
The regime, however, has not provided any timelines for recovery or structural solutions, while its own citizens bluntly summarize the situation: "We are abandoned, completely, there isn't even water."
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