A fire at the electrical substation in Jicotea, a locality in the municipality of Ranchuelo in Villa Clara, left the town without electricity since last Friday, according to a citizen report received by journalist Mario J. Pentón and confirmed in the of the Electric Company of Villa Clara.
According to the complainant, "this plant had been experiencing problems for a while: it would shut down and electricians had to come to fix it because the demand is very high."
The damaged equipment had been in operation since 1965, over six decades of service, and had been experiencing recurring failures before the fire.
The Electric Union of Villa Clara confirmed in their technical report that the 54 and 94 circuits of Jicotea were affected by the fire and a pole change.
"Yesterday, a malfunction occurred at the Jicotea electrical substation (4kv), caused by a fire, which has resulted in the interruption of electrical service in almost the entire town," the state-owned company wrote on its Telegram channel last Friday.
The town remains in the dark and without official information on when the service will be restored.
"It is important to specify that once the maneuvers are completed and the work by our teams is finished, it will still not be possible to restore the electrical service as there are multiple damages in the substation and electrical lines which are being repaired progressively," the company stated.
The latest update on the electrical situation, published this Wednesday, reported that five days after the incident, the Jicotea circuits are still affected.
This is not the first time Ranchuelo has faced an electrical emergency of this magnitude.
In October 2025, a traffic accident caused an explosion at the Gran Panel substation in the municipality, leaving more than 10,000 people without electricity.
The incident adds to a series of similar outages across the island. In mid-August, a transformer exploded in Calabazar, Boyeros, and no technician from the electric company showed up for two days.
In June, a fire at the electrical substation in Caibarién, also in Villa Clara, left 15 districts without service due to overheating.
The crisis is structural. The Electric Union acknowledged in June 2026 that there are no transformer spare parts available in any province of the country and that Cuba has only three repair workshops throughout the territory.
In Havana, an average of 25 transformers are damaged each day. Villa Clara, on the other hand, recorded generation deficits of between 208 and 215 MW during the first half of August.
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