The Electric Union (UNE) announced this Friday the reintroduction of several thermal units to the National Electric System and the synchronization of new photovoltaic parks, in a report disseminated by the state-run Canal Caribe that the regime itself leveraged to proclaim "zero blackouts" in Havana due to generation deficits, while the electrical data from the capital contradicted that narrative.
According to the official report, Unit C of Mariel was reactivated with over 95 MW—"almost at its design capacity"—after a long period out of service, along with two CESPE units, two units from the Santa Cruz del Norte power plant, one unit in Nuevitas, and the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant in Matanzas, which was also supplying energy to the system.
In solar energy, the El Algarrobo park in Guantánamo, inaugurated days earlier, was synchronized to the national grid, marking Cuba's surpassing of 1,000 MW of installed photovoltaic sources.
But the official report revealed the extent of the crisis: the estimated availability for that Friday was only 1,300 MW compared to a national demand of between 2,850 and 3,300 MW, a gap that the UNE's dispatch acknowledged "does not meet the nation's demands."
Even more revealing was what the executives of UNE admitted about fuel: "There is no imported fuel in the country that allows for generation, neither for distributed generation, nor for the trucks in Havana, nor for the sites. All that generation, which amounts to more than 1,200 MW, is currently halted because we do not have fuel for its generation."
This means that all nighttime electricity production depends exclusively on domestic crude and associated gas from our own extraction, with no imported fuel.
While the regime boasted about the capital's events, the electrical reports from Havana recorded 13 circuits and 35 MW affected by noon that same Friday, and by the early hours of Saturday, there were still 240 MW and 68 circuits without service in the capital.
The accumulated context is devastating. On September 1st, Cuba began the month with blackouts affecting 70% of the island simultaneously, with a supply of barely 1,020 MW against a demand of 3,300 MW.
On August 5, a historical record of 2,411 MW of affected capacity due to a generation deficit was registered. So far in 2026, there have been at least six total system collapses, the most severe occurring on March 16, with nearly 30 hours of nationwide blackout.
In provinces like Matanzas, Cubans have endured up to 87 consecutive hours without electricity this year.
The regime attributes the paralysis of more than 1,200 MW to the U.S. embargo, which it refers to as the "energy blockade" and the "suffocation imposed by the empire." However, the crisis has structural roots that go back decades: aging thermoelectric plants, chronic lack of maintenance, and the reduction of Venezuelan supply after the capture of Nicolás Maduro in January 2026.
In June, Washington sanctioned CUPET, the Cuban state oil company, under Executive Order 14404, blocking its assets and restricting international transactions.
In this context, the Miami Herald revealed that the Trump administration may have offered oil and investments to Cuba in exchange for the privatization of CUPET and the removal of Miguel Díaz-Canel from power.
The proposal did not succeed, and Cuba remains trapped in an energy crisis that its own officials acknowledge has a “long road” to resolution.
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