Electric Company of Matanzas reported this Saturday that it is working on the gradual restoration of electrical service in the province following the collapse of the National Electroenergetic System (SEN), which left the entire western region of the country without power, according to a Facebook post from the entity.
The system collapse occurred at 6:07 PM this Saturday, when a simultaneous fault took place in the 220 kV lines connecting Matanzas to Cienfuegos and Matanzas to Santa Clara.
That technical failure split the SEN and caused outages in the provinces of Pinar del Río, Artemisa, Mayabeque, La Habana, and Matanzas, according to the simultaneous discharge in the lines of Matanzas reported by the Electric Union.
In its statement, the state-owned company indicated that "plans are being prepared in the province to gradually restore the system once conditions allow."
As a first concrete step, the entity reported that the Faustino Pérez Hospital —the main hospital center in the province— and the 4955 water pumping circuit Bello already had electrical service, in accordance with the protocol of prioritizing health facilities and critical potable water infrastructure during restorations.
The recovery strategy in Matanzas involved bringing the 110 kV Guanábana substation back online and connecting it to other points in the system to move towards overall synchronization, with priority also given to the Eliseo Noel Caamaño Hospital, according to reports from local media.
The collapse came at the worst possible time for a system already at its breaking point. At 6:00 AM this Saturday, the availability of the SEN was just 895 MW against a demand of 2,825 MW, with 1,930 MW affected even before the afternoon breakdown.
The total disconnection of the SEN in western Cuba occurred over a network that was already operating under critical conditions.
The event this Saturday is not an isolated incident. So far in 2026, Cuba has experienced multiple total collapses of the SEN: the general blackout of March 16, 2026, which lasted for 29 hours and 29 minutes, and the outages on July 6 —almost 24 hours without electricity—, as well as on July 11 and 14.
Only on July 29, the Electric Union had predicted a record deficit of 2,380 MW during peak hours, which is equivalent to leaving nearly three-quarters of the country without power.
The underlying causes are structural: aging thermal power plants without adequate maintenance, chronic fuel shortages, and decades of underinvestment in the network.
The western zone has the highest population density in Cuba, including Havana, and relies on the high-voltage transmission lines that originate specifically from Matanzas, making it the most vulnerable region to any failure in that electrical corridor.
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