Only three percent of customers in Havana have electricity following the disconnection from the national grid

Only 30,277 of the 862,732 customers of the Electric Company of Havana, equivalent to three percent of the total, had service on the evening of this Friday, following the eighth total disconnection of the National Electroenergetic System (SEN) which occurred shortly before 2:00 PM.

According to the report, shared by the official newspaper Granma's Facebook page, only four of the 26 substations in the capital are operational, while only 10 out of the 286 distribution circuits are functioning.

The source indicated that "the restoration is being carried out gradually as conditions of the SEN allow," but they did not provide a timeline for the complete recovery of the service.

The report also warned that some customers could remain without electricity even after their circuit is restored, due to other reasons unrelated to the general disconnection.

According to the official explanation, the collapse this Friday was triggered by the successive failure of two high-voltage transmission lines originating from Matanzas, first the 220 kV Matanzas-Cienfuegos line and then the Matanzas-Santa Clara line, in a context of unstable weather conditions.

The sequence was swift: the initial failure divided the system into two blocks - Western zone and Eastern zone - and just minutes later, a total shutdown occurred. The UNE confirmed the disconnection from Pinar del Río to Matanzas at 1:52 PM, and from Matanzas to Guantánamo five minutes later.

The system was already operating at its limit before the collapse, as it had only 1,113 MW of available generation against a projected demand of 3,210 MW, with a maximum anticipated impact of 2,007 MW.

The previous recoveries in Havana present a bleak outlook considering that after the fifth complete disconnection of the SEN in July, the capital reached four percent service in the early hours; after the sixth, it barely reached 14% the following day.

The authorities reported that they will keep the public updated through their official channels, the Telephone Assistance Center (18888), and the Command Post established for the current electrical situation.