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The Electric Union (UNE) announced this Tuesday that the National Electroenergetic System (SEN) is now interconnected from Pinar del Río to Holguín, marking a significant advancement in the recovery process following the total collapse that occurred this Monday.
"The National Electric Power System is now interconnected from Pinar del Río to Holguín. Efforts are underway to restore the connection with the rest of the provinces," reported UNE on its official Facebook account.
Among the milestones of the restoration, the UNE confirmed that Ciego de Ávila was connected to the SEN during the early morning: "At 2:40 AM, the four solar parks of 21.8 MW are generating at maximum capacity, contributing their energy to the SEN," according to the company published on social media.
At 11:43 in the morning, the UNE reported that Unit 1 of the CTE Ernesto Guevara De La Serna, in Las Tunas, was brought online and began to increase its load, a key node for reconnecting the eastern part of the country.
The recovery process began in Jaruco, Artemisa, with the support of the Energy Storage System (BES), and gradually extended to Mariel, Santa Cruz, and the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes Thermal Power Plant in Cienfuegos, forming a corridor that progressed to Sancti Spíritus and then towards the east.
The director of the National Cargo Office, Félix Estrada Rodríguez, emphasized that "the most important thing is to get the units of Céspedes up and running in order to ensure the continued restoration of the system."
The Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, stated that "our priority is to reach Felton and continue," referring to the thermoelectric plant in Holguín, another essential node to complete the reconnection in the east.
As the runner moved eastward, Havana had only recovered 46% of its supply —131 circuits, 396,447 customers, and 269.6 MW— according to the Electric Company of Havana, which acknowledged that "restoration is progressing gradually as the conditions of the SEN allow."
Residents of the capital reported more than 40 consecutive hours without electricity and days without drinking water. "Guanabo has been without power for 41 hours and without water for a week. How much longer will this abuse continue?" wrote a resident in the comments on the official statement.
Monday's blackout is the seventh total collapse of the National Electric System (SEN) in the last 18 months and the third in 2026, triggered by the shutdown of Unit No. 6 at the Nuevitas thermoelectric plant in Camagüey, which caused a cascading disconnection in a system that only had 1,000 MW available against a demand of 3,100 MW.
The crisis has structural roots: Cuba has gone more than three months without receiving oil shipments, 106 distributed generation plants remain shut down due to a lack of diesel —890 MW unavailable— and the country's largest thermoelectric plant, the CTE Antonio Guiteras, has not received major maintenance since 2010.
La Guiteras, which recorded its 17th outage of the year on July 3 for repairs on the boiler economizer, plans to synchronize with the SEN on July 9 to provide approximately 200 MW, although the reaction from Cubans on social media was skeptical: "It'll probably go down again on the 10th," one user quipped.
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