Related videos:
La Unión Eléctrica (UNE) reported that at 6:30 AM this Sunday, the National Electroenergetic System (SEN) was fully interconnected across all of Cuba, two days after the fourth total blackout of the year.
According to the official publication on Facebook, at the time of the announcement, units 3 and 4 of the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes thermoelectric plant in Cienfuegos, and unit 1 of the Lidio Ramón Pérez CTE (Felton) in Holguín were online.
The reconnection process had progressed in stages throughout the early morning hours.
At 00:13 hours, the CTE Antonio Guiteras in Matanzas was synchronized with the national system.
Hours earlier, the Felton Unit 1 and Diez de Octubre Unit 6 had been integrated in Nuevitas (Camagüey), and the system was already connected "from the province of Pinar del Río to Holguín," as reported by UNE itself.
However, interconnection does not equate to stable supply nor does it resolve the underlying crisis.
The blackout occurred on Friday, July 10 at 3:55 PM, when a fault in the 220 kV transmission line between Santa Clara and Sancti Spíritus triggered a cascading disconnection that, in just 35 minutes, left nearly 10 million people without electricity.
At that moment, the system was operating under extremely precarious conditions: only 935 MW available against a demand of 3,100 MW, with 11 thermoelectric units out of service and 106 distributed generation plants halted due to lack of fuel.
The recovery was particularly arduous. In the early hours of Saturday, the 11th, there was a new collapse of voltage in the western microsystem, forcing a restart of the protocol from scratch.
Félix Estrada Rodríguez, director of the National Cargo Office, acknowledged that the recovery was progressing "with the limitations we have regarding fuel" and that it was necessary to create provincial "islands" to ensure service to hospitals and water pumping stations.
This was the eighth total blackout of the National Electric System in approximately 24 months and the fourth so far in 2026, occurring just four days after the third collapse on July 6.
The structural context is devastating. On July 8, the largest energy deficit in Cuba's history was recorded: 2,341 MW, with 73% of the population affected simultaneously.
The thermoelectric plants are between 40 and 60 years old without comprehensive capital maintenance, and Cuba has gone more than three months without receiving regular oil shipments.
Experts estimate that modernizing the electrical infrastructure would require between 8 billion and 10 billion dollars, a figure that is unattainable for the regime.
The government response was limited to rhetoric. The Minister of Energy and Mines stated, "no one surrenders here", without announcing any structural measures, while the leader Miguel Díaz-Canel blamed the "genocidal oil blockade" and called for "better organization" of the blackouts.
Citizen outrage was strongly expressed.
This Saturday, in Guanabacoa, a strong pot-banging protest with slogans of "Freedom!" and "Down with the dictatorship!" was recorded after more than 33 consecutive hours without electricity, on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the popular uprising of July 11, 2021.
In June 2026, 107 street protests were recorded in Cuba, a historical record, nearly double the previous maximum.
On social media, Cubans questioned the fragility of the system: "And in those 35 minutes, is there not an action plan in the SEN that would prevent such a failure in the 220 kV line between the two cities from going beyond the local level?" asked one user.
Another person summed up the collective frustration: "We can't live like this for our entire lives; there are children, young people, and the elderly here. Something has to change to improve this, because honestly, we are at extreme levels that are unbearable."
Filed under: