Cuba reaches the last day of October facing an electricity crisis characterized by multi-day blackouts, breakdowns in thermoelectric plants, and failures in the lines connecting the provinces. In Cienfuegos, the state company acknowledged circuits with between 70 and 89 hours of continuous power outages, while the national maximum impact reached 2,004 megawatts (MW) on Thursday the 29th, the highest recorded over the five days of confirmed shutdowns within this report.
The week saw a series of territorial disconnections: Santiago de Cuba and Guantánamo were disconnected from the National Electric System (SEN) on Sunday the 25th; Granma experienced another interruption of its connection on Monday the 26th; and Pinar del Río lost its connection on Tuesday the 27th. Guantánamo once again reported a disconnection and subsequent reconnection on Friday the 30th. These were regional incidents with varying impacts, adding to the outages caused by insufficient generation.
This series of failures was compounded by the shutdown of the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant on Tuesday, the 27th, due to low vacuum in the condenser. On the same day, a fire at the Alacranes substation in Matanzas left around 3,700 customers without service. On Thursday, another failure in a 110 kV line interrupted the supply to most circuits in Santa Clara. The crisis impacted both electricity production and the networks needed to deliver it to consumers.
The latest available national forecast illustrates the magnitude of the imbalance: for the peak demand period on Friday the 30th, the Electric Union (UNE) estimated 840 MW available against a demand of 2,800 MW. The expected power barely represented 30% of the demand. The announced impact was 1,990 MW, a forecast that could not yet be presented as a confirmed outcome for that day.
This report covers the period from October 25 to the early hours of October 31, 2026, in Cuba time. The latest available national update as of this date is from October 30, which reports on the closure as of October 29.
The figures from the last week: disruptions close to 2,000 MW
The data from the CiberCuba Blackouts Observatory, compiled from reports and communications from electric entities, shows a consistently high national impact. The relief recorded on Wednesday, the 28th, was followed by a new increase on Thursday.
On Sunday, October 25, the maximum recorded impact was 1,849 MW, compared to a forecast of 1,760 MW for the peak. On Monday, October 26, the actual maximum rose to 1,983 MW, exceeding the forecast of 1,900 MW. On Tuesday, October 27, 1,988 MW were recorded, very close to the forecast of 1,990 MW.
On Wednesday the 28th, the maximum recorded impact decreased to 1,928 MW, while the forecast peak had been 2,045 MW. On Thursday the 29th, it rose again to 2,004 MW, compared to the 1,940 MW expected for that day.
For Friday the 30th, the projected impact was 1,990 MW, without the national report for that day being available at the time of the outage. In the early hours of Saturday the 31st, there was also no report or new national update with sufficient figures, although territorial reports had been published.
Between Sunday the 25th and Thursday the 29th, the maximum recorded impact increased by 155 MW, approximately 8.4%, according to the calculation over both closures. The trend was not uniform: the decline on Wednesday was insufficient to maintain an improvement the following day.
These figures reflect affected electrical power. The duration reports by circuit and distribution outages provide insight into another aspect of the crisis: how long certain communities remained without service and what obstacles persisted even after provincial connectivity was restored.
Breakdowns and maintenance reduce generation
The outage of Guiteras once again highlighted the fragility of repairs. Following its disconnection on the 27th, an inspection revealed three faults in the boiler: in the low-temperature superheater, the header of the feedwater system, and the high-temperature reheater. The technical deputy director, Elmer García Romero, estimated about four days of work, subject to the evaluation of the tasks. This timeframe was an estimate for repairs, not a confirmation of a return to the SEN.
The report from October 30 listed five units out of service due to breakdowns and another four under maintenance, distributed among Guiteras, Santa Cruz del Norte, Felton, Nuevitas, and Renté. It also noted 496 MW of limitations in thermal generation. This combination restricted the system's capacity to meet demand.
Solar generation provided energy throughout the week, but did not eliminate the shortage. On October 29, photovoltaic parks produced 4,357 megawatt-hours (MWh) and reached a maximum power of 678 MW during peak hours. On the same day, the maximum impact due to generation deficit reached 2,004 MW at 19:10.
The electrical landscape, province by province
Territorial records have varying coverage. In some provinces, they allow for the identification of circuits, schedules, and magnitudes; in others, the information for the week is focused on central areas, specific incidents, or testimonies. They do not provide a comparable classification of average blackout hours by province.
Pinar del Río: a 46-minute disconnection
On Tuesday the 27th, a shot on the 220 kV Pinar–Mariel line disconnected Pinar del Río from the SEN at 13:21. The UNE announced the restoration at 14:07, 46 minutes later. The official information did not specify the technical cause that led to the opening of the line.
The episode added a provincial link interruption to a day that was already experiencing a significant generation deficit. The restoration of that connection allowed the territory to be fed again from the national system, but the announcement did not guarantee the end of the rotations or continuous supply for all households.
Artemisa: Mariel between a breakdown and an announced addition
The records from Artemisa were focused on the thermal power plant Máximo Gómez, in Mariel. Unit 8 was listed as under maintenance in the reports from the 25th to the 27th, while unit 5 was reported out of service due to a breakdown between the 27th and the 29th.
For the peak on Thursday, the 29th, the UNE planned to incorporate unit 5 with 60 MW. The Observatory notes this communication as a scheduled entry; the records consulted do not provide subsequent confirmation of synchronization to consider it completed. The reports document generation difficulties at a power plant located in Artemisa, although they do not specify how many hours of blackout each municipality experienced during the week.
Havana: over 64 hours of accumulated disruption in Arroyo Naranjo
The capital also recorded prolonged outages. At 06:00 on Friday the 30th, the VC100 circuit in Arroyo Naranjo had accumulated 64 hours and six minutes of outage, according to the Electric Company of Havana. In that same report, 173 affected circuits and 355 MW of impact due to deficits were reported.
The VC100 data is cumulative: the consulted documentation does not specify the accounting period or whether there were intermediate restorations. Other circuits in Arroyo Naranjo, Cerro, and Regla also showed dozens of hours of disruption. During the early hours of the 31st, reconnections were reported in different areas of the city, in a succession of service outages and restorations.
The consequences extended to education. A report from IPS Cuba, gathered by CiberCuba on the 30th, described the Lenin Vocational School with electricity available only a few hours a day and difficulties in getting water to the upper floors of the dormitories. Students and families faced challenges that went beyond the class schedule.
Mayabeque: Santa Cruz has unavailable units
In Mayabeque, the thermal power plant Santa Cruz del Norte experienced issues during the period. Unit 1 was still reported as out of service on Friday the 30th, and unit 3 remained under maintenance, with conditions that were consistent with reports from previous days.
On Monday, the 26th, unit 2 also appeared to be out of service. The consulted documentation does not provide a subsequent confirmation of its return to operation, so its absence in later notices does not allow us to confirm that it was generating electricity. Provincial records show unavailability affecting the National Electric System, but they do not provide a complete weekly report of residential outages in Mayabeque.
Matanzas: Guiteras, a fire and changes in the protected circuits
Matanzas concentrated several of the most significant events. In addition to the departure of Guiteras, the fire on Tuesday, the 27th, at the Alacranes substation, in the municipality of Unión de Reyes, left around 3,700 customers without electricity, according to the director of the Territorial Basic Electric Organization. Among the affected facilities were two pumping stations, a polyclinic, a maternity home, and a special school.
The distribution difficulties extended to other areas. The director of the provincial company reported 162 damaged transformers and 5,687 customers without service by Tuesday morning. These figures correspond to equipment failures and should not be added to those of Alacranes, as there is not enough information to rule out overlaps among those affected.
On Friday, authorities announced the installation of 12 disconnectors to separate hospitals from residential areas connected to protected circuits. The stated aim was to include these areas in the rotations and redistribute 19 MW. Four devices had already been installed. This measure alters the distribution of power outages; it does not add new generation capacity.
Villa Clara: outages in Santa Clara and families without electricity for weeks
On Thursday the 29th, a failure in a 110 kV line left the majority of circuits in Santa Clara without service. The provincial company limited that incident to the city. Separately, their report at 18:04 registered 215 MW affected by deficit and 148 circuits without electricity across the Villa Clara region. These provincial figures did not correspond exclusively to the breakdown of the line.
The week also highlighted a recognition of much more prolonged issues. The Agroforestry Company of Villa Clara reported that families in areas supplied by circuits 67 and 152 of Remedios had been without electricity for over 45 days, resulting in food losses and difficulties in meeting basic needs. CiberCuba published the information on the 27th. This situation began before the period covered by this report, and its persistence was documented throughout the week.
Cienfuegos: unmet rotations and outages of up to 89 hours
On Wednesday the 28th, the Electric Company of Cienfuegos acknowledged that it would be unable to fulfill the planned rotation for the city and recognized circuits in the province with between 70 and 89 continuous hours without supply. It attributed the difficulties to low national availability and the unexpected outage of Guiteras. No date for normalization was provided.
The Observatory also documented the impact on circuits 18 and 20, identified as backup for hospitals. The company explained that it would rotate the service to other circuits with extreme outage times. The notifications do not allow for conclusions regarding whether the hospitals would be without power or to determine the status of their backup systems. The reported durations pertain to specific circuits, not the average across all of Cienfuegos.
Sancti Spíritus: the lack of electricity exacerbates water and healthcare issues
A report dated October 31 indicated that the impact from generation shortages in Sancti Spíritus was 70 MW. The ongoing power outages had repercussions on other services: on Friday, a summary from the Water Supply Department collected by CiberCuba stated that over 57,800 residents were experiencing difficulties with water supply due to a combination of electrical issues and pumping failures.
Trinidad faced the greatest electrical challenges in ensuring supply. Its pumping stations are connected to different circuits, making it difficult to maintain stable supply when power is interrupted. The report also noted around 19,600 residents directly affected by broken equipment in Vanguardia and Guasimal.
The director of the Faustino Pérez Provincial Rehabilitation Hospital explained that the nighttime blackouts and the lack of fuel were disrupting the admissions of patients with multiple sclerosis. The shortage made it difficult both to transfer patients from other provinces and to manage the extended stays required for treatments.
Ciego de Ávila: Chambas reports days with very few hours of electricity
In Ciego de Ávila, one of the testimonies published during the week came from Chambas. Delma López Gutiérrez, an emigrant who returned to visit her mother, described days with between one and a half to three hours of electricity, communication difficulties, and neighbors resorting to coal or firewood for cooking. CiberCuba recorded her account on Monday the 26th.
It is a testimony about that municipality, not a measurement of the entire province. The territorial report from the Observatory recorded its last localized event on October 9, which means it does not allow for establishing a provincial figure of impact corresponding to the period from the 25th to the 31st.
Camagüey: generation deficit and distribution breakdowns
A report from the Electric Company of Camagüey indicated a shortfall in generation of 102 MW on Friday the 30th. The first updates dated the 31st still reported 92 MW and 88 MW affected, in different communications and without a visible timestamp to accurately reconstruct their sequence.
Friday's reports also included blown transformers and users without service in various locations. In the municipality of Vertientes, three blown transformers were reported, and in Sibanicú, one. To these distribution issues was added the unavailability of generation: the units 5 and 6 of the Nuevitas thermoelectric plant were listed as under maintenance in the national report on the 30th.
Las Tunas: pending interruptions and damaged transformers
At 09:00 on Friday the 30th, the electric company reported 265 pending outages in the municipality of Las Tunas and 169 in Puerto Padre. The same report noted 41 damaged transformers in the main municipality. There were also malfunctioning equipment and pending issues in other municipalities of the province.
These reports describe network issues that are in addition to the outages due to national shortages. They are pending incidents reported by the company, not a count of affected individuals or a tally of all the blackouts that occurred during the week. Their persistence highlights the challenges in restoring service when, in addition to a lack of generation, there are damaged distribution equipment.
Holguín: extended outages in Banes and Urbano Noris
In Holguín, the Observatory recorded on Wednesday, the 28th, 33 hours and one minute of disruption in the Esterito branch of the Banes–Banes circuit. Reports from other days also documented extended outages in the province's circuits.
At 01:26 on Saturday the 31st, Urbano Noris 1 had accumulated 20 hours and 23 minutes of outages, and Urbano Noris 2, 20 hours and 22 minutes. The provincial company reported during that early morning a demand served of 50 MW: the power it was supplying, distinct from the power affected by the outages. The durations correspond to the identified circuits and do not constitute a provincial average.
In the generation, unit 2 of Felton, located in Mayarí, continued to be reported out of service due to a malfunction on Friday the 30th.
Granma: disconnection of the line supplying the province
Granma experienced a regional disconnection on Monday, October 26, when the 220 kV line linking the province to the national electric system (SEN) went down. The electric company reported the failure through CNC TV Granma and acknowledged that it initially did not know the causes.
The entity announced the implementation of recovery protocols and expressed that it expected to restore the supply in the following hours. That communication was an expectation of recovery. The consulted documentation does not allow for establishing a total duration of the incident nor converting it into a weekly balance of hours without electricity for the province.
Santiago de Cuba: regional disconnection and limitations in Renté
Santiago de Cuba began the period with the disconnection on Sunday the 25th, when the trigger of the Cueto–Renté line disconnected the province and Guantánamo from the national grid. The reports gathered by CiberCuba confirmed the incident, although they contained a timing discrepancy that prevents establishing the exact moment of the event based on those publications.
The power plant Antonio Maceo, known as Renté, had several units out of service. The report on Friday, the 30th, indicated that units 3 and 6 were down and unit 5 was under maintenance. For the peak, it was considered to add 50 MW from unit 6. The Observatory notes this addition as a forecast, without confirmation in the reviewed records that it was fulfilled at the announced time.
Guantánamo: returning to the SEN did not mean having electricity in every home
After the disconnection on the 25th alongside Santiago, Guantánamo experienced another episode of leaving and returning to the SEN on Friday the 30th. The Observatory recorded the reconnection at 8:16 PM. However, at 10:44 PM, the company was still reporting 46 MW affected and 20 MW in service.
The provincial company also reported 54 damaged transformers during the day. CiberCuba gathered the complaints from residents who claimed to still be without electricity after the reconnection announcement. This situation illustrates how the restoration of the provincial connection can coexist with outages due to shortages and local breakdowns that leave communities without supply.
Isle of Youth: cooking with charcoal and living dependent on electricity
In the special municipality of Isla de la Juventud, the testimony of Idaneris Aguirre, published by CiberCuba on Friday the 30th, reflected the domestic wear and tear caused by the crisis. The resident described how, despite working every day, she was still forced to cook with charcoal and faced the consequences of the lack of electricity in her home.
The territorial report from the Observatory did not contain new records for the period: its last event dated back to August 18. Therefore, the old data on available generation or daily duration of blackouts do not allow for a quantification of the situation in this area during the last week of October. Aguirre's account offers an individual experience published during these days, summarized in a question: “I don’t know if this is living or just surviving”.
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