Cuba wakes up this Saturday with ten thermoelectric units out of service—six due to breakdowns and four undergoing maintenance—leading the country to a day of widespread electricity outages, according to the official report from Unión Eléctrica published this morning.
At 06:00 hours, the availability of the National Electroenergetic System was just 895 MW against a demand of 2,825 MW, leaving 1,930 MW uncovered since dawn.
The units with failures are numbers six and eight from the Mariel thermoelectric power plant (CTE), unit two from the Santa Cruz CTE, the unit from the Guiteras CTE—the largest in the country, located in Matanzas—, unit two from the Felton CTE, and unit three from the Renté CTE.
Unit three of the Santa Cruz CTE, unit five of the Nuevitas CTE, and units five and six of the Renté CTE are currently under maintenance, resulting in additional limitations in thermal generation of 334 MW.
For the peak nighttime demand, the outlook is equally bleak: the Electric Union projects a availability of 1,080 MW against a demand of 3,200 MW, resulting in a deficit of 2,120 MW and an estimated impact of 2,150 MW, which is approximately 67% of the uncovered national demand.
The agency anticipates the partial reactivation of three units during the peak: unit eight in Mariel with 60 MW, unit two in Santa Cruz with 80 MW, and unit three in Renté with 45 MW, a contribution that proves insufficient to alleviate the crisis.
On Friday, the situation did not improve: the outages extended over 24 hours, including the entire night, and the peak impact reached 2,256 MW at 10:10 PM. The photovoltaic solar parks contributed 5,288 MWh that day, with a maximum power of 822 MW at solar noon, a temporary relief that vanished as the evening approached.
This Saturday marks the worst electrical July that Cuba has seen in years. The National Electric System suffered three total blackouts during the month: on July 6, July 10, and July 14, the latter taking nearly 20 hours to restore service.
On July 29, a record deficit of 2,380 MW was recorded during peak hours, with only 850 MW available.
The Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, acknowledged on July 30 that there is not enough fuel—neither reserves of fuel oil nor diesel—to stabilize the system, and that the solution to the blackouts is a "long road" with no immediate relief in sight.
Between January and June 2026, Cuba's thermoelectric plants accumulated around 96,125 MW-days of unavailable capacity due to breakdowns, with Renté and Felton being the most affected plants, according to data from El Toque.
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