More than Half of Cuba Without Power
and the electrical system on the verge of collapse
Many Cubans complain on social media and in statements to independent media about being without electricity for up to a day or more.
By Raul Medina Orama (El Toque)
HAVANA TIMES – For two consecutive days, more than half of the island has been without power, according to estimates from the Electric Union (UNE). The country faced another day of blackouts on Thursday, February 13, 2025, with possible outages affecting more than 56% of the national territory.
The energy crisis is leaving the worst numbers of the year in terms of generation deficits and real outages during the first half of February. Let alone in production figures in most sectors of the economy.
UNE admitted on February 13: “The electricity service was affected during the 24 hours of yesterday and remained so throughout the early morning today. The maximum disruption was 1,779 MW at 7:20 p.m.” For today, Thursday, they expect a deficit of 1,740 MW during peak demand (afternoon-evening) and an estimated outage of 1,810 MW. The figures translate into massive power outages.
Lazaro Guerra Hernandez, a Ministry of Energy and Mines official, said on television that “the system’s generation is low” because nine units of the thermoelectric plants remain out of service, “five with breakdowns and four under maintenance.”
Additionally, the two floating power plants in Havana are not operating “due to a lack of fuel.” These ships were rented by the Cuban government from the Turkish company Karpowership (a subsidiary of Karadeniz Holding for naval operations). The official said they expect them to be operational by Friday. Furthermore, the fuel oil engines located in Mariel, which generate about 110 MW, also lack fuel to operate, and there is no diesel available for the generators, according to Lazaro Guerra.
According to data from UNE compiled and analyzed by elTOQUE, during February there have been daily outages ranging from 1,362 MW to 1,770 MW (a record on February 12). This month, no day has seen less than 41% of the country without power during peak demand hours.
A Full Day (and More) Without Electricity in Cuba
Many Cubans complain on social media and in statements to independent media about being without electricity for up to a day or more.
A resident of Consolación del Sur (Pinar del Río) told elTOQUE that the extensive blackouts affecting “more than half of the province” disrupt daily life, including food preparation and his work as a shoemaker.
“Often I have to borrow money to pay the State for the work permit, while the thermoelectric plants in the country are out of service, and we’ve been without power for almost a month,” lamented the person, who has a hearing impairment and requested anonymity for fear of retaliation.
He also criticized that almost no one “has gas canisters to cook. Is there any hope of solving the power issue? The gas sales points tell people, when buying fuel, that ‘it has to last’ for five months. That’s an abuse!”
Jose Ortiz Benet, a resident of Manzanillo, Granma, posted on Facebook that since Wednesday, they’ve been without power for “almost 24 hours” in his circuit.
“Bread and charcoal are now even more scarce on the streets. (…) The vendors shout in a low, almost imperceptible, and fast voice, selling bread. Several merchants have closed their businesses. This morning began without potable water, and in the neighborhood, hardly anyone is up, exhausted from a lack of sleep,” he described the impact of the blackouts in his community.
Cienfuegos is another province heavily affected, according to complaints sent to elTOQUE and reports from the local Electric Company (which has admitted at least 25 continuous hours of blackouts).
Jorge Alberto Amador Valdes, a resident of the Cumbre circuit (Placetas municipality) in Villa Clara, wrote on Facebook: “It seems like they’ve completely disconnected us from the national grid because we’ve been without power for 24 hours.” Another user commented: “Circuit 1 has been without power for 27 hours.”
In Havana, which is generally less affected than other cities, blackouts have also increased, with scheduled six-hour outages during the day and some unscheduled ones at night, according to elTOQUE.
Engineer Lazaro Guerra stated on the Buenos Días television program that “by tomorrow [Friday], they might have three generating units in Nuevitas and one in Rente up and running”; he promised “a higher level of generation.” However, the official admitted that there would still be “many disruptions.”
Cuba’s energy crisis is systemic and has worsened over the past five years. In 2024, there were several instances where more than 50% of the service was affected due to generation deficits, with three nationwide system collapses that plunged the country into a near-total blackout for days.
First published in Spanish by El Toque and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.
I just approved a comment of yours. If you have another please repost.
everything is nuts here, i I can’t take it anymore, there is a line and the government really has gone too far not just in the electricity wise, food is really hard to put our hands on, and once gotten it goes all bad in the fridge. getting bread is another headache. Me myself have gone for three months without my BP pills, all around here is a living hell and yes, we don’t have the right to complain and if you did it you are just calling for trouble, badmouthing the government is a crime here and they complain all the time about the blockade but we can’t complain, the national news keeps us posted on every bad news around the world but it looks like we are going through the best time ever. I tried to leave this country three times but I didn’t succeed, I am getting too old for leaving this country, but at the same time, I know that I am going to die poor here, keep my hope up about leaving this country is like beating a dead horse.
Circles Robinson: I tried to add a comment but I was met with the following message:
“Duplicate comment detected; it looks as though you’ve already said that!”
I assure you this was a new comment. So what is going on?
Thanks.
There are millions of Canadians who winter in Florida and Arizona but because of the recent hostility towards Canada as shown by the American regime, they would rather take their billions elsewhere.
Canadians are the single largest source of Cuban tourists.
Put those two together and have Cuba join the Canadian Confederation as the first offshore autonomous territory of Canada. Cuba has the sun, sand, and doctors, while Canada has everything else. Cuba’s government should really start thinking out of the box because there are new opportunities available to them; if they only allow themselves to think creatively. The American’s are creating tensions that others can use to create opportunities.
Dear Giles, I am well aware about dangers in identifying ones self and we go to an effort to protect sources. The comment emails only go to me the editor. Sometimes I check them when there seems something odd. For example we had three people commenting with variations of the same name from the same country. I felt that was strange and confusing. They often would answer each other. By writing to them I found one of their emails was legit while two weren’t.
If people within Cuba post from real email addresses against the government (ie by actually telling the truth), G2, the intelligence arm of MININT [a service originally designed and trained by E. Germany’s infamous STAZI] will find, punish them or their relatives physically and then imprison them. Silencing dissent and denying the horrible reality of life in Cuba for ordinary Cubans is the regime’s best and only strategy for remaining in power. Authoritarianism rarely looks beyond the end of its own nose. But Cuba is in a crisis like never-before. Support for the so-called ‘communist’ regime [20% of the people who live fairly well with access to foreign dollars and food] will soon evaporate. The consequences will be horrible, since 80% of the population are suffering from lack of food, drinkable water and electric power. Without gas the country has ground to a halt and there is nothing else for afflicted Cubans to do but get angrier and angrier in the dark because there is no solution or relief on any horizon. Russia is bankrupt and surrounded. Venezuela is in chaos. The corrupt regime of Diaz-Canal has all the guns on the island, of course, but sooner or later hunger will reach into the Revolutionary Police and the Army. At that point, the white thieves who have treated Cuba like their personal piggy-bank for 66 years, will have to run like Baptista or face horrible consequences. This is not a projection into the distant future any more. Of course, they should not look to the United States for help. Involvement in Cuba will require massive investment since the country’s infrastructure is completely broken and it produces nothing. The investment is just not worth it. Moreover, there are a lot of brown, Spanish speaking people on the Island. America is currently trying to get rid of as many of those as it can. In reality, Cuba is a collapsed state like Haiti. Geopolitically, this represents a wonderful opportunity for the Chinese who are already building NSA style listening stations south of Havana. Anyone who can leave the Island has already left of is leaving soon. Since Trump’s election Miami is no longer a destination, but any place, any place at all is better than Cuba in terms of personal security and quality of life. There will be blood.
Just came back from Cuba. Private business is booming. More and more new cars on the roads. Lot’s of well stocked stores. All kinds of food items available. People well dressed and enjoying dining out. This website is pure propaganda sponsored by Miami-Cubans. All Fake news here. Above comments repetitive chat-bots.
The building of the new hotels in Cuba has always been a grift by the regime to skim foreign dollars off the top of the construction costs. Everyone knows this. That these facilities lose goo-gobs of money is news to no one. The increase in the frequency and duration of power outages is only going to get worse. The causes for this decline are numerous but the solution is simple: outside foreign investment. No one expects this to take place. Cuba’s former sugardaddys, Russia and Venezuela, are no longer in a position to save the day and China is not interested in making the kind of investment in Cuba necessary. This leaves Cuba with only one course of action: give up. This is not likely to happen anytime soon. Soooo, like the compromises of the Special Period in the early 1990s, Cubans will just have to adjust to living in the Stone Age.
Jeff official channel will not work one small group outside of gibara is doing a lot of good on the ground getting in needed medicine from India Mex and certain items Costco returns from Canada. Be careful I can not say more here look up my other posts you will see my contact information one hostel in Havana is also helpful on Cuba street
When it night time and no power some parts of Cuba are now very dangerous. Some people have slow charging power blocks of 200 watts to 800 watts but the power is not on enough to even charge these units to keep min lights and fans running at night rechargeable flashlights and other rechargeable lights and fans are beyond the reach of most workers in Cuba and noway can a pensioners afford them
Yet the gov of Cuba still expects to get a duty on imported generator batteries inverters or power blocks. Shortage of both electric power and propane gasoline and diesel fuel make it impossible to even run a generator inverter 30 minutes every 3 hours after the power has been off for 3 hours or more. There should be no markup or duty on solar panels or the battery and inverter if not being charged from the hydro grid in my opinion. Cuba needs to get away from using the U S dollars to Euro pesos or Canada dollars and sign 20 year deals of a Max of 10 000 hectares per grower Co op with 1/3 Cuban grower worker partner with 2/3 foreign with any country except the United States. The same allow Russia and or Canada and Mexico to develop the natural gas wells and have south Korea and China / India to upgrade to natural gas turbines at 13 key locations of about 300 mega watts each and make a deal to have free and open elections and free all the protesters . Only then can Cuba become a good place for older people to retire to and restart medical tourists which is much more profitable than the current model.
Hello Stephen, I just realized that your email and the Stephen that answered you above are using emails that don’t seem to be legit. Please use a real email to continue commenting. Best regards, Circles
Stephen, both your and Stephen Falcon’s emails appear to be false. To continue commenting use a full name and a real email. Thanks, Circles
Stephen Falcon poses some thought provoking questions:
“What normal feasibility studies were conducted for building the empty new hotels?” The mentality of an authoritarian totalitarian regime is: We – the totalitarian rulers – decide what is best for Cuba (Cuba in this scenario being the all encompassing euphemism for the totalitarian rulers). Hence, no “normal” feasibility studies are needed since the totalitarian regime’s rulers have the “insight and intelligence “ to make the “right” decisions.
And of course a short historical background check in the last 66 years shows the exact opposite to be true. However, the totalitarian regime’s propaganda machine will, in the media like the Cuban television talk show “Mesa Redonda” (Round Table), constantly convey delusional decisions that must be supported however outlandish they may be.
“Who were the architects, engineers, urban planners, economists that recommended this course of action?”Probably the ones with significant ties to the totalitarian regime’s rulers. Those that appear as government approved guests on Cuban media. They will spout what the totalitarian rulers want to hear. What architects, engineers, urban planners, economists who want to keep their jobs will oppose the totalitarian regime’s Party line? Next to none.
In a two valued totalitarian political system you as a professional either agree with the totalitarian regime’s policies, however delusional they may be, or you are against what is taking place in which case one keeps quiet. Or, if one has the temerity and courage to vociferously voice an opposing opinion let it be known that job prospects will become nullified. In fact country expulsion may take place.
One only has to read HT’s article “I Fled Cuba’s Media Repression to Remain Being a Journalist.” to witness what happens when a professional Cuban journalist – Jose Luis Tan Estrada – does not tow the Party line.
“What new methodology of feasibility assessment did they use, and what consultations did they have with the representatives of the people?” Everyone knows the answer here: Absolutely zero.
You may have been a bit facetious in posing this question. Totalitarian regimes do not consult meaningfully with the people. That is a fact. Oh, yes, the Cuban totalitarian regime certainly has people representatives sitting on local committees. When Diaz-Canel addresses the Assembly of Representatives they all clap in unisons. These Representatives are simple window dressing to show the outside world that the Cuban government takes their citizens concerns seriously. Balderdash to that. Has anyone seen an Assembly member in the multitude of Assembly members not clap?
Stephen, you are absolutely correct. The incompetence, arrogance, ineptness, mismanagement, and on, and on . . . ad negative nauseam of the Cuban country in the past 60 plus years has resulted in a complete breakdown in the economic and social fabric of the nation. As you rightly point out it’s the majority of Cubans citizens who must endure and suffer the daily unbearable consequences.
These Cuban totalitarian regime cadres have indeed lost contact with reality and with the majority of Cuban citizens. There is such a wide disparity between the people and their supposed representatives that either one continues to hopelessly grin and bear it, or if one has the resources – flee. Both decisions not good options for Cuba’s future.
Jeff: It’s a very nice sentiment but there’s greater than a 50% chance the charity would be owned by the Cuban military – like most of the hotels. Cuba is running out of dollars (if they haven’t already) so confiscation of all, or the vast majority, of the donations is highly likely. Even remittances from abroad are handled by intermediary financial transfer companies owned by the military. The best way to get money into the hands of the locals is to be on the ground in Cuba, but even just getting there is becoming increasingly expensive. Have a look at a week’s vacation anywhere in Cuba from Canada – the charges are absolutely ridiculous for an island sinking by the day. It’s partly due to the declining Canadian dollar but also the scalping of vacationers by the regime.
Cuba, Canadians are ready to help. Tell us what do to.
Are there registered charities that we can donate to that will specifically help with this?
The consequences of certain errors in statecraft are merciless. Unfortunately it’s the people who pay a heavy price.
The Raulistas had to have known that the main electric plant (Antonio Guiteras) was antiquated and a complete replacement was needed. Yet in their supreme wisdom they rather decided to build new hotels instead, and throw away money in never-ending costly repairs to the electric plant! What normal feasibility studies were conducted for building the empty new hotels? Who were the architects, engineers, urban planners, economists that recommended this course of action? What new methodology of feasibility assessment did they use, and what consultations did they have with the representatives of the people? The corruption of cronyism, a privileged demographic and bureaucratic existence and loss of contact with reality and the people are as much to blame as the intensified US onslaught!