At 1:10 AM this Sunday, the Electric Union (UNE) announced on its official Facebook page the restoration of the Electrical System in the western region of Cuba, after nearly seven hours of collapse.
The announcement unleashed a wave of disbelief: in the comments on the post, Cubans from Havana, Matanzas, Artemisa, and Cienfuegos reported still being without electricity.
The sequence of the restoration
The collapse began at 6:07 PM on Saturday (local time) when, according to the UNE, "a simultaneous trip occurred on the 220 kV lines from Matanzas to Cienfuegos and from Matanzas to Santa Clara."
The incident divided the National Electroenergetic System (SEN) and left five provinces without electricity: Pinar del Río, Artemisa, Mayabeque, Havana, and Matanzas.
The recovery was gradual and documented in successive updates. The state-owned company prioritized hospitals and vital centers.
In one of its recent posts, the UNE emphasized: "At this moment, restoration efforts are ongoing, following the established procedure. Hospitals and vital centers are operational. Generating units in the western region are being prepared for their gradual integration into the national electrical system."
A little later, the UNE reported the first technical milestone: "Unit 3 of the CTE Renté, which has re-synchronized after the collapse is online."
Subsequently, it was reported that the system was moving westward: "The system is connected to the 220 kV Substation of Mariel. The Mariel Thermal Power Plant is in the process of being started, and the Ernesto Guevara Thermal Power Plant in Santa Cruz del Norte is operational."
In a subsequent update, new additions were announced: "Synchronized to the SEN, Energy Units Varadero 1 and 3. Unit 5 of the Máximo Gómez Power Plant is in the startup process, along with Units 1 and 2 of the Ernesto Guevara Power Plant and the combined cycle of Energás Boca de Jaruco."
At 1:10 a.m., the UNE closed the sequence and declared the incident concluded: "Electric System restored in the western part of the country."
A system on the brink of collapse
The blackout on Saturday occurred on a network that was already strained: at 6:00 a.m. that day, the availability was just 895 MW compared to a demand of 2,825 MW.
Ten thermoelectric units were out of service, six due to faults—among them the Antonio Guiteras plant, the largest in the country—and four for maintenance.
This episode adds another link to the chain of total and partial collapses of the National Electroenergy System (SEN) that have been recorded during 2026. In February, the shutdown of units at the Felton and Renté thermoelectric plants caused a total blackout in the eastern region, leaving the provinces of Holguín, Granma, Santiago de Cuba, and Guantánamo without electricity.
On March 4th, a failure at the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant caused the disconnection of the National Electric System from Camagüey to Pinar del Río.
A national blackout was recorded on March 16, following the total disconnection of the SEN, which was not restored until 29 hours and 29 minutes after the system failure. But just five days later, in the same week, a new massive blackout left the entire country without power.
The frequent outages of the SEN reached their peak in July, a month when there were successive total collapses within just eight days: on the 6th (nearly 24 hours), the 10th, and the 14th, raising alarms about the severity of the energy crisis that Cuba is facing, the worst in the country's history.
"They put the map upside down": The reaction of the Cubans
The official announcement of the restoration of the system did not match the reality that thousands of families in the western part of the country were experiencing at that moment, and the comments on the UNE Facebook page made that clear.
The reactions ranged from irony to indignation. "I don't have electricity. I think they moved me from the western part of the country; I'm from planet Mars," wrote a user. Another was more direct: "They put the map upside down."
From specific neighborhoods in Havana, there were precise reports: “Marianao has been without power since before the system failure,” “Old Havana is still without power.” Several pointed out an unequal distribution: “They only powered the privileged circuits.”
Others linked the outages to the lack of water: "We need electricity because we have been without water for months due to the power cuts."
A comment summarized the underlying technical contradiction: “Just because the system is linked does not mean there is sufficient generation; the deficit still exists.”
In general, the prevailing sentiment is one of exhaustion and indignation. "What they have with the people is total disinformation," stated a user.
The Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, acknowledged on July 30 that there are communities that have gone as long as 105 days without electricity, and that the crisis "does not have a short-term solution".
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