Cuba’s Electric Grid Collapse Leaves Havana Powerless
The outage hit all the Western provinces since early Wednesday
The Cuban provinces officially affected are four: Pinar del Río, Artemisa, Havana, and Mayabeque.
HAVANA TIMES – A disconnection of the national electric grid, caused by a breakdown in the transmission line linking the Santa Cruz thermoelectric plant with that of Guiteras in Matanzas, left the western half of Cuba without electricity on Wednesday, including Havana. In the capital, the only light at daybreak was the sun’s, except in buildings equipped with generators.
According to Lazaro Guerra, general director of Electricity at the Ministry of Energy and Mines, the incident caused a loss of connection between two of the main thermoelectric plants in western Cuba, Che Guevara (Santa Cruz del Norte) and Antonio Guiteras (Matanzas). “This failure caused the other line to become overloaded and split the system at that point. The western zone was left without electrical service. The rest of the system remains operating stably,” he explained.
As a result of this breakdown, the Santa Cruz and Mariel thermoelectric plants, both in the affected western third of the island, had to stop. Two other thermoelectric plants in central and eastern Cuba — Felton (Holguín) and Céspedes (Cienfuegos) — were also disconnected from the grid; they are now back online and increasing output, as are several Energás units.
The breakdown therefore halted generation from four of the country’s seven thermoelectric plants. The three that remained in operation are Guiteras — the island’s largest plant — Renté (Santiago de Cuba), and 10 de Octubre (Nuevitas).
The Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, stated on social media that the “established recovery protocols” for the electric system were already being applied and that energy generation and distribution were beginning again in the western third of the island.
Around 10 a.m., Havana’s electric company reported that seven substations and 45 distribution circuits had been restored, representing barely 15.8% of the city.
O Levy said Vital health services have also been restored, including nine hospitals, along with seven key water-supply sources. Substations in Havana — such as Diezmero, Cotorro, Melones, and Naranjito — and some in Mayabeque are being “energized,” explained Lazaro Guerra, who added that photovoltaic solar parks are also beginning to generate, increasing production capacity.
President Miguel Díaz-Canel also commented on social media, saying that ministry officials “do not rest” and linked this new power failure to the US “blockade” and to Hurricane Melissa, which affected eastern Cuba a month ago.
Although in an initial report the government t journalist Lázaro Manuel Alonso stated that the country was affected from Cienfuegos to Pinar del Río, in a later update he said the affected provinces are four: Pinar del Río, Artemisa, Havana, and Mayabeque. In that post, one commenter added sarcastically: “And Sancti Spíritus too, I suppose, out of solidarity.”
From Holguín, residents told this newspaper that they did not have electricity on Wednesday, but “it’s not possible to know whether it’s a local blackout or part of the national system collapse.”
The incident is similar to one that occurred in October, when a failure in the national grid caused a partial disconnection affecting several eastern provinces. It was also predictable, given the dire deficit situation of recent days.
On Monday, the Electric Company registered a new record: an outage of 2,105 megawatts (MW) during the late-afternoon and evening hours. In that report — unlike its usual daily updates — the state company did not provide the figures for available MW and MW demanded. But given that maximum demand is usually around 3,250 MW, about 65% of the country’s energy needs went unmet.
Since October 2024, the island has suffered five total blackouts, the most recent last September, caused by the unexpected shutdown of the Antonio Guiteras plant.
First published in Spanish by 14ymedio and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.