The Cuban electrical system (SEN) collapsed this Friday totally in the fourth national blackout in the last six months, confirmed the Ministry of Energy and Mines (Minem) of the island.
According to the MINEM, The “disconnection” occurred at 20.15 local time (0:15 GMT) by a breakdown which caused an “important loss of generation in the west of Cuba and with it the fall of SEN”. The electrical system of the Caribbean country has reported high deficit rates and frequent effects in recent months.
Last February it was recorded The highest deficit in at least two years with 57% of the country at the same time. In some regions of the country, the daily interruption of the electric service since the past weeks exceeds 20 hours a day. To this is added the lack of fuel on the island, necessary to start the bulk of the system.
Independent experts had alerted since the end of 2024 that the current energy crisis is due to a Chronic infinance of this sector, completely in the hands of the State since 1959. Thermoelectric plants are obsolete, after decades of exploitation.
Cuba crosses an energy crisis that He worsened at the end of last year with interruptions in the service in more than half of the Cuban territory and accompanied by three national blackouts of several consecutive days in the last quarter of the exercise.
The main causes of the prolonged daily blackouts are frequent breakdowns in the obsolete thermoelectric plants and the lack of fuel, due to the currency deficit to import it from the state, which maintains a monopoly on the electricity sector.
According to various independent calculations, The Cuban executive would specify between 8,000 and 10,000 million dollars to refloat the SENan investment out of reach.
The frequent blackouts have the Cuban economy, which contracted 1.9% in 2023 and did not grow last year, according to estimates of the government itself. According to these figures, the GDP of the island remains below the 2019 levels and will not exceed this 2025, for which The Executive provides for a 1 %advance.
Ten million dark Cubans
Nearly 10 million Cubans They left this Friday without current after the failure in a substation in Havana destabilizes the National Electrical System (SEN) and provoked the fourth total blackout on the island in less than six months.
This caused the chain output of several electrical production units, the subsequent “important loss of generation in the west of Cuba” and, subsequently, the “total fall” of the system.
In different points of Havana and the country, according to various testimonies, they were experienced strong fluctuations of the electric flow and intermittent blackouts before the total supply cut occurs.
“You work tirelessly for its most prompt recovery”the Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero wrote on social networks.
The Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, said that at three hours of the total disconnection already “microsystems” worked in 11 of the 14 provinces of the country. UNE added that these islands with current served “vital centers.”
In the last three national blackouts, registered in October, November and December 2024, UNE began reactivating microsystems (fed by large generators who use fuel or diesel) and then He proceeded to interconnect them and take the current to the great plants to be able to turn them on and synchronize them with the SEN.
This complex process of uncertain advance -and sometimes with setbacks – It extended for several days in the three previous national blackouts. The Government came to suspend work and school activity throughout the country. At the moment the authorities have not spoken about it.
For its part, the Ministry of Tourism stressed that the sector has a “solid energy support” – in reference to hotels generators – which “guarantees the continuous operation” of its facilities and services.
Energy crisis
The SEN has been in a very precarious situation for months due to frequent breakdowns in its seven thermoelectric plants, with decades of exploitation and a chronic investment deficit, and due to the lack of diesel and fueloil for their generation engines distributed throughout the country, because The State does not have the necessary currencies.
This Friday was planned that, in the Moment of greater consumptionthe deficit reached 42% of the demand, but the percentage reached 57% last February, the highest rate in at least two years.
Independent experts explain that the energy crisis is due to a chronic infinance of this sector, completely in the hands of the Cuban State from the Triumph of the Revolution in 1959. The government points to the effects of US sanctions in this area.
Cuba rented in a moment up to seven floating plants (Patanas) to a Turkish company to alleviate the lack of SEN generation capacity, but at present there is only one docked in the port of Havana (without official explanation in this regard). It was a quick, but onerous solution that did not stop the background problem.
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