The Cuban Electric Union (UNE) forecasted a shortfall of 2,020 MW for this Monday during peak demand hours, with a mere availability of 830 MW compared to an estimated demand of 2,820 MW, resulting in a deficit of 1,990 MW in the National Electric System.
The official report published this morning revealed that at 6:00 AM, there were already 1,374 MW affected with a demand of 2,203 MW. By noon, UNE estimated an impact of 1,550 MW, a figure that would rise to 2,020 MW during the nighttime peak.
On Sunday, things did not get better: the service was interrupted due to capacity shortages for 24 hours, including the entire early morning. The peak actual impact of that day reached 1,961 MW at 7:10 PM.
The collapse has a name and surname in the engine rooms. According to the report from the UNE for this Monday, the units 5 and 8 of the CTE Mariel, the units 1 and 2 of the CTE Santa Cruz, the unit of the CTE Antonio Guiteras, the unit 2 of the CTE Felton, and the units 3 and 6 of the CTE Renté are out of service due to failures. Additionally, there are three units under maintenance and thermal limitations totaling 270 MW.
La CTE Guiteras, the largest thermoelectric plant in the country located in Matanzas with a capacity of up to 316 MW, has recorded at least 17 unscheduled outages in 2026 and has not received capital maintenance since 2010, with over 38 years of operation.
While technicians account for megawatts, Cubans count hours in the dark. In Matanzas, the municipalities of Manuelito and Bolondrón had accumulated almost 70 consecutive hours without electricity by the end of Sunday, and circuits in Jagüey Grande surpassed 60 hours. In the Los Mangos neighborhood of the city of Matanzas, a journalist reported 44 consecutive hours without power this Monday, following a previous period of 53 hours in the dark. A resident of Colón claimed to have been without electricity for 56 days due to a transformer failure.
In Pinar del Río, the situation is equally dire. The first provincial secretary of the Communist Party, Yamilé Ramos Cordero, acknowledged on Sunday that some circuits had gone over 90 consecutive hours without electricity, with supply restricted only to three hospitals and, occasionally, to the well field of the provincial capital.
Prolonged power outages have caused disruptions to the drinking water supply. The pumping stations in Pinar del Río were without power from 4:00 PM to 8:30 AM the following day for two consecutive days. This Monday, 52 of the 177 supply sources in the province were out of service, and some communities had gone without piped water for between 67 days and over three months.
October has already begun in a critical zone: on October 2, a maximum impact of 2,130 MW was recorded, and on October 10, a trip in the Nuevitas–Las Tunas transmission line caused a massive blackout in the eastern part of the country, leaving around 3.4 million people without electricity for more than two hours.
The photovoltaic solar generation provided 2,817 MWh on Sunday, with a peak of 438 MW at noon, but this was insufficient to compensate for the collapse of thermal generation during the nighttime hours, when demand reaches its highest point and the panels do not produce.
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