Cuba began this Tuesday the 2026-2027 school year amid an extreme electrical crisis: after a full day of blackouts and a maximum impact of 2,323 MW, the Electric Union (UNE) predicted that during peak hours on September 1st, the impact could reach up to 2,310 MW.
In its official report on the status of the National Electric Power System (SEN), the state-owned company announced that on Monday, the electrical service was impacted by a generation capacity deficit throughout the 24 hours and that power cuts continued during the entire early morning of Tuesday. The maximum impact reached 2,323 MW at 8:50 PM.
However, the outlook for this Tuesday does not offer relief. During peak consumption hours, the UNE estimates a supply of only 1,020 MW against a projected maximum demand of 3,300 MW, resulting in a forecasted deficit of 2,310 MW.
The entity expected to incorporate 60 MW from unit 6 of the Antonio Maceo thermoelectric plant in Renté, which was in the process of starting up.
The system begins September with numerous thermoelectric units out of service. The UNE reported breakdowns in units 5, 6, and 8 of the Máximo Gómez plant in Mariel; unit 2 of the Ernesto Guevara plant in Santa Cruz; unit 4 of the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes plant in Cienfuegos; unit 2 of Felton; and unit 6 of Renté.
Additionally, other units are undergoing maintenance and 106 distributed generation plants are out of service due to a lack of fuel. The barges from Regla and Melones, as well as the Fuel plants in Mariel and Moa, are also unavailable.
The photovoltaic solar parks produced 4,624 MWh on Monday, according to the official report, and reached a peak power of 719 MW, a contribution that has not prevented the country from continuing to experience massive deficits and prolonged blackouts.
The date makes the electrical situation an especially sensitive issue: this Tuesday students return to classrooms after a previous school year that was already shortened, among other reasons, due to a lack of fuel, power outages, and transportation difficulties.
Indeed, the Minister of Education, Naima Ariatne Trujillo Barreto, acknowledged just a few hours before the start of the school year that schools would open under "very difficult" conditions, facing shortages of uniforms, school supplies, teachers, and challenges in providing meals for students.
The official admitted that the notebooks will be subject to a "basic adjusted standard," which has not been uniformly guaranteed for all students, and that teacher coverage remains one of the major problems in the education system.
The minister herself had acknowledged the direct impact of nights without electricity on the school day. "After a night without power, going to school for the child [...] is a challenge," she stated, also referring to the exhaustion of teachers affected by the same outages.
The situation forced the government to move the end of the 2025-2026 school year to the period between June 15 and June 30, despite the original schedule extending until July.
Among the officially recognized reasons were chronic power outages, lack of fuel, and difficulties in transporting students and teachers.
Months earlier, during another critical phase of the SEN, the Ministry of Education had decided to keep classes going despite the energy crisis, adjusting the double session according to the electrical conditions of each school.
The difficult situation contrasts with the political rhetoric used to announce the return to the classrooms. The Communist Party recently described the start of the new school year as "another act of heroism", at a time when families were reporting difficulties in obtaining food, supplies, uniforms, and other necessary resources to send their children to school.
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