Cuba faces a day of widespread power outages across the country this Monday.
According to the report from the Electric Union, the availability of the power system for the nighttime peak hours will be only 1,150 MW compared to a projected demand of 3,250 MW.
This results in a projected impact of 2,130 MW, equivalent to leaving approximately 65% of the country without electricity.
At dawn, the deficit was already around 1,700 MW, and by noon, the estimated impact is 1,600 MW.
On Sunday, July 26, the service was interrupted for 24 hours, including the early morning, with a peak impact of 2,083 MW at 8:10 PM, affecting all provinces without exception.
Lázaro Guerra Hernández, General Director of Electricity at the Ministry of Energy and Mines, acknowledged in statements to the Caribbean Channel that the impact this Monday is "slightly above" that of Sunday.
"The maximum impact yesterday was 2,083 MW, and for today we are anticipating a midday impact of 1,600 MW. For the system's peak demand, we expect a availability of 1,150 MW against a forecasted maximum demand of 3,250 MW, which translates to an impact of 2,130 MW," he detailed.
The journalist reporting from the National Cargo Office candidly summarized the situation: "A difficult Monday, complicated in the operation of the system due to low generation capacity availability."
Four thermal generation units are out of service at the Máximo Gómez thermoelectric plant in Mariel; at the Antonio Guiteras plant in Matanzas; at the Lidio Ramón Pérez plant in Felton; and at the Antonio Maceo plant in Renté, Santiago de Cuba.
Another four blocks are under maintenance.
In addition to that, 106 distributed generation plants are out of service due to a lack of fuel, along with the Regla and Melones barges and the Mariel and Moa fuel plants.
Guerra Hernández acknowledged that the collapse is due to "a combination of unavailability caused by a lack of fuel and the shutdown of generating units."
The country's most powerful plant, Guiteras - with a capacity of about 200 MW - was taken offline in the early hours of Sunday due to a leak in the economizer.
So far this year, there have been at least 17 unplanned outages. Experts hope to access the boiler once the cooling process is complete to assess the extent of the failure.
This Monday comes a day after July 26, the most significant anniversary on the Cuban regime's calendar.
The irony did not go unnoticed: the comedian Ulises Toirac captured the feelings of millions of Cubans with a phrase published on Sunday: “What a great blackout since the eve in honor of the 26... Indeed, it is always the 26th.”
The crisis this Monday is part of the worst month in recent Cuban electrical history.
On July 8, a historic record deficit of 2,341 MW was recorded, and on July 24, the impact approached another peak with 2,315 MW.
In 2026, Cuba has experienced at least four total blackouts, the latest of which, on July 6, left approximately 9.6 million people without electricity.
For this Monday, no addition of generating units to the system is anticipated. The only prospects for relief—the 6 from Mariel and a unit from Renté—are expected later in the week, with no specific date.
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