The National Electro-Energetic System (SEN) of Cuba experienced a total disconnection again this Friday at 4:30 PM, as confirmed by the Electric Union on its social media.
"Now, 16:30 hours. Complete failure of the National Electric System," wrote the company.
The collapse was also reported by journalist Lázaro Manuel Alonso on Facebook, who stated: "A few minutes ago, there was a disconnection of the National Electric System. We are seeking more details."
This is the fourth total blackout of 2026 and the eighth in approximately 24 months, marking an unprecedented acceleration in the rate of collapses of the Cuban electrical system.
The moment of collapse is particularly revealing: on that same day, the Antonio Guiteras Thermoelectric Power Plant had announced its start-up process to join the National Electrical System precisely during peak demand hours, a promise that generated widespread skepticism among the Cuban population.
The conditions leading up to the collapse were already critical: the availability of the SEN during peak hours was around 935 MW against a demand of 3,100 MW, implying an expected deficit of more than 2,100 MW.
In addition to that, 106 distributed generation plants remained inactive due to a lack of fuel, representing an additional 890 MW unavailable.
The immediate context further exacerbates the situation. Just four days earlier, Cuba recorded its third total blackout of the year on July 6, leaving approximately 9.6 million people without electricity.
On July 8, the largest energy deficit in the country's history was reached: 2,341 MW, with 73% of the population affected simultaneously.
The causes are structural. The Cuban thermoelectric plants have been operating for between 40 and 60 years without comprehensive capital maintenance. The Guiteras, inaugurated in 1988, has not received that type of maintenance since 2010 and has gone offline from the SEN 17 times just in the year 2026 so far.
Cuba has also gone more than three months without receiving oil shipments, relying on solar energy, natural gas, and power plants operating under precarious conditions.
This Friday, Díaz-Canel asked to "better organize" the blackouts without announcing any measures to increase generation, while Havana abandoned the block management due to the inability to maintain any rotation scheme.
In some areas of Matanzas, power outages have lasted up to 87 consecutive hours; in Havana, the average is 15 hours a day without electricity, a situation that has sparked protests and noise demonstrations met with police operations.
The process of restoration after a complete disconnection is technically complex and can take several days: it requires the creation of regional microsystems before reconnecting the large thermal power plants. The longest blackout of the current cycle was on March 16, 2026, which lasted for 29 hours and 29 minutes.
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