At 1:10 AM this Sunday, the Electric Union (UNE) announced on its official Facebook page the restoration of the Electric System in the western part of Cuba, following nearly seven hours of total collapse that began Saturday afternoon.
The announcement sparked an avalanche of disbelief: in the comments of the post, Cubans from Havana, Matanzas, Artemisa, and Cienfuegos reported that they still had no electricity.
The sequence of the restoration
The collapse began at 18:07 on Saturday when, according to the UNE, "a simultaneous outage occurred on the 220 kV lines from Matanzas to Cienfuegos and from Matanzas to Santa Clara," which split the National Electric System and left five provinces without power: Pinar del Río, Artemisa, Mayabeque, La Habana, and Matanzas.
The recovery was gradual and documented in successive updates.
The company prioritized hospitals and vital centers: "Right now, restoration efforts are ongoing according to the established procedure. Hospitals and vital centers are operational. Generating units in the western region are being prepared for gradual integration into the national electrical system."
At 12:25, the UNE reported the first technical milestone: "Unit 3 of the CTE Renté, which re-synchronized after the collapse is now online."
Minutes later, it was reported that the system was moving west: "The system is connected to the 220 kV Substation of Mariel. The Mariel CTE is in the startup process and the Ernesto Guevara CTE, from Santa Cruz del Norte, is operational."
In a later update, new additions arrived:
"Units 1 and 3 of Energás Varadero are synchronized with the national electricity grid. 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 am, the UNE closed the sequence: “Electrical System Restored in the western part of the country.”
A system on the verge of collapse
The blackout on Saturday occurred on a network that was already exhausted: at 6:00 AM that day, the availability was only 895 MW compared to a demand of 2,825 MW.
Ten thermoelectric units were out of service, six due to breakdowns—among them the Antonio Guiteras plant, the largest in the country—and four for maintenance.
This episode is the fifth collapse of the National Electrical System in 2026, following the blackouts on March 16 (29 hours and 29 minutes), July 6 (nearly 24 hours), and the collapses on July 11 and 14.
"They turned the map upside down": The reaction of the Cubans
The official announcement did not match the reality that thousands of families were experiencing, and the comments on the UNE page made that evident.
The reactions ranged from irony to indignation. “I don't have electricity. I think they took me from the west of the country; I'm from planet Mars,” wrote a user.
Another was more direct: “They put the map upside down.”
Concrete reports came in from specific neighborhoods in Havana: "Marianao has been without electricity since before the system failure," "Old Havana is still without electricity."
Several pointed to an unequal distribution: "They only activated the privileged circuits."
Others linked the outages to the lack of water: "We need electricity because we've been without water for months due to the blackouts."
A comment summarized the underlying technical contradiction: “Just because the system is interconnected doesn’t mean there is enough generation; the deficit still exists.”
The prevailing feeling was one of exhaustion and indignation.
«There is total misinformation regarding the people», wrote a user. The Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, acknowledged on July 30 that there are communities with up to 105 days without electricity and that the crisis “does not have a short-term solution”.
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