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Cubans experience another Sunday of long blackouts

Electrical energy

This Saturday, the Santa Cruz thermoelectric plant went out of service, joining four other units, and 93 power generation motors due to a lack of fuel.

The Energás Varadero generating unit is expected to contribute 90 megawatts to the National Electric Power System in early July. / Girón Newspaper

14ymedio

June 22, 2025 - 2:03 PM

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Havana/ Cuba's energy deficit will reach alarming levels this Sunday. According to forecasts by the Electricity Union (UNE), peak availability is estimated at 1,820 megawatts (MW), compared to 3,500 MW.

The gap between supply and demand will reach 1,680 MW and eventually 1,750 MW. UNE acknowledged that the blackouts affected "services around the clock on Saturday and continued throughout the night." It also confirmed the "unscheduled shutdown of Unit 1 of the Santa Cruz Thermoelectric Plant."

The outlook for this Sunday offers no improvement, as five of the 20 thermoelectric generation units (spread across seven plants) are out of service. The UNE confirms outages at Unit 6 of the Mariel Power Plant and Unit 2 of the Felton Power Plant. In addition, Unit 2 of the Santa Cruz Power Plant, Unit 4 of the Cienfuegos Power Plant, and Unit 5 of the Renté Power Plant are undergoing maintenance. In addition, 93 power generation engines are out of service due to a lack of diesel or fuel oil. The 16 solar parks created this year partially compensate for the shortage during daylight hours, but cannot store energy because they are not equipped with batteries.

The island's energy crisis has worsened since mid-2024, with blackouts now exceeding 20 hours in several parts of the country. Last May, President Miguel Díaz-Canel summarized the energy problem as the island's extremely high demand, contrasting with the limited fuel available.

The island's energy crisis has worsened since mid-2024, with blackouts now exceeding 20 hours in several parts of the country.

According to a report published last year by Cuba Siglo 21 , repairing the island's aging electricity-producing infrastructure would take between six and ten years and require a colossal investment of $10 billion.

Furthermore, frequent blackouts are weighing down the Cuban economy, which contracted 1.9% in 2023 and did not grow last year, according to government estimates, EFE reported. According to these figures, the island's GDP remains below 2019 levels and will not surpass them in 2025, for which the Executive branch forecasts a 1% growth.

Four national blackouts have affected electricity service since the end of last year. The last was in March, when most of Cuba's nearly 9.7 million residents were left without power for an entire weekend.

The energy crisis has reached Isla de la Juventud. The territory, which had been spared from the planned blackouts due to its own grid, suffered power outages this week lasting approximately five hours per block, although many customers report up to 10.