The National Electric System (SEN) of Cuba will face a forecasted deficit of 2,280 MW during peak hours this Thursday, according to the information note from the Electric Union published this morning.
The state entity anticipates a supply of only 1,000 MW against a maximum demand of 3,250 MW, which guarantees massive power outages across the country.
Wednesday was equally devastating: the electricity service was interrupted for 24 hours due to a lack of generation capacity, with a maximum impact of 2,165 MW recorded at 8:30 PM, affecting all provinces without exception.
Four thermal power units are currently out of service: unit 6 of the Máximo Gómez plant in Mariel, unit 1 of the Antonio Guiteras power station in Matanzas, unit 2 of Lidio Ramón Pérez in Felton, and unit 3 of Antonio Maceo in Renté.
Three other facilities have units under maintenance: the Ernesto Guevara De La Serna plant in Santa Cruz, units 5 and 6 of Antonio Maceo, and unit 5 of Diez de Octubre in Nuevitas.
In addition to this situation, 106 distributed generation plants are out of service due to a lack of fuel, along with the Patana de Regla, the Patana de Melones, the Central Fuel de Mariel, and the Central Fuel de Moa.
The 54 solar photovoltaic parks contributed 5,578 MW/hour on Wednesday with a maximum output of 867 MW, but this figure is insufficient to offset the collapse of thermal generation.
This Thursday, the Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, appeared before the National Assembly and provided an unembellished diagnosis: there is no short-term solution for the blackouts and "the road ahead is long."
The official admitted that Cuba lacks reserves of fuel oil and diesel to sustain electricity generation: "Today we are not receiving fuel, absolutely nothing."
The minister also attributed part of the crisis to the systematic theft of dielectric oil from transformers, noting that some areas have gone as long as 105 days without electricity due to damage to hard-to-replace equipment.
A court recently sentenced an individual to 12 years in prison for stealing 102 liters of dielectric oil from the Bungo 2 substation, an incident that left hundreds of families without electricity for 48 hours.
The events of this Thursday are set against a catastrophic July for the SEN. On July 24, the impact neared another record with 2,315 MW at 9:10 PM, with outages occurring throughout the 24 hours.
On Wednesday, July 29, UNE had forecasted an impact of 2,380 MW, the highest figure reported in all of 2026.
So far this year, the SEN has experienced at least five total blackouts: on March 16 —the longest, lasting 29 hours and 29 minutes without electricity— on March 21, July 6, July 10, and July 14, accumulating eight total disconnections in just 24 months.
In April, De la O Levy had already acknowledged that Cuba needs eight fuel ships monthly to meet its electricity demands, but since December 2025, it had only received one.
The regime itself anticipated at the end of that year that 2026 would be difficult and that the blackouts would not disappear, although it promised some improvements that never materialized.
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