The province of Pinar del Río was completely isolated from the Nationwide Electric System (SEN) this Tuesday at noon, following a fault in the 220 kV Pinar–Mariel line that interrupted the electricity supply to the entire province at 1:21 PM.
About 46 minutes later, at 14:07, the Electric Union (UNE) confirmed the restoration of service with a brief posting on their social media: "Electric service restored in the province of Pinar del Río."
The state-owned company did not specify the exact technical cause that activated the protection systems of the line. In electrical terminology, a "trip" refers to the automatic opening of a high-voltage line when the protection mechanisms detect an anomaly in voltage, frequency, or a short circuit.
The incident occurred at one of the worst moments for the SEN so far in October. Just an hour and a half before the power outage in Pinar, the Antonio Guiteras Thermoelectric Plant —the largest generating plant in the country, located in Matanzas— went offline again due to low vacuum in the condenser, marking its third malfunction in October.
The UNE report from this Tuesday indicated that at six in the morning, there were only 850 MW available compared to a demand of 2,250 MW, with 1,340 MW affected. The company forecasted a generation deficit of 1,960 MW for the day and a maximum impact of 1,990 MW, which means operating at less than 38% of the demand.
What happened in Pinar del Río is the fourth provincial disconnection incident due to a 220 kV line trip recorded in less than three weeks. On October 10, a fault in the Nuevitas–Las Tunas line left five provinces in eastern Cuba without electricity for two hours and 31 minutes, affecting about 3.4 million people.
Last Saturday, Santiago de Cuba and Guantánamo were isolated following the outage of the Cueto–Renté line, and on Monday, Granma woke up completely in the dark due to a similar failure in its 220 kV power supply line, with the provincial Electric Company unable to specify the causes.
This pattern of cascading failures reflects the structural fragility of the Cuban transmission network, whose high-voltage lines are the only link between the provinces and the national system. When one of these lines fails, the province becomes completely electrically isolated until the connection can be restored.
Throughout 2026, the SEN has experienced at least eight total blackouts. The longest occurred on March 16 and lasted for 29 hours and 29 minutes, leaving the entire island without electricity for more than a day.
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