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The Electric Union (UNE) announced this Tuesday that the National Electroenergy System (SEN) is now interconnected from Pinar del Río to Holguín, marking a significant advancement in the restoration of electrical service following the total collapse reported this Monday.
"The National Electric Power System is now interconnected from Pinar del Río to Holguín. Efforts are underway to restore connection with the other 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 another post by the company on social media.
At 11:43 AM, the UNE reported that Unit 1 of the CTE Ernesto Guevara de la Serna in Las Tunas was brought online and began to generate power, a crucial 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 Thermoelectric Power Plant in Cienfuegos, forming a corridor that moved toward Sancti Spíritus and then eastward.
The director of the National Cargo Office, Félix Estrada Rodríguez, emphasized that "the most important thing is to get the 'Céspedes' units started in order to ensure we can continue restoring the system."
The Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, specified that "our priority is to reach Felton and continue," referring to the thermoelectric plant in Holguín, another essential node to complete the reconnection of the east.
While the power grid extended 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 "the restoration is progressing gradually as conditions permit within the SEN."
Residents of the capital reported more than 40 consecutive hours without electricity and several days without drinking water. "Guanabo has been without power for 41 hours and without water for a week. How long will this abuse last?" wrote a resident in the comments on the official statement.
The blackout on Monday is the seventh total collapse of the National Electric System in the last 18 months and the third of 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 had barely 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 shipments of oil, 106 distributed generation plants remain idle due to a shortage of diesel—890 MW unavailable—and the largest thermoelectric plant in the country, the CTE Antonio Guiteras, has not received major maintenance since 2010.
The "Guiteras", which recorded its 17th outage of the year on July 3 due to repairs on the boiler economizer, is expected to synchronize with the National Electric System on July 9 to provide approximately 200 MW, although the reaction from Cubans on social media was skeptical. "It's set to leave on the 10th," joked one user.
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