In a repeating story, this Wednesday at 9:14 a.m., the Cuban National Electric Power System (SEN) suffered another “total power outage.” The trigger for the new outage this time was — or, rather, was again — an “unforeseen shutdown” of the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant, the country’s main unitary block.
According to Rubén Campos Olmo, director of the Matanzas plant, “a false signal of superheated steam caused the boiler’s automatic circuit to disarm, thus causing the thermal block to shut down.” Although the problem was later resolved, as the executive himself reported, the damage had already been done.
The Guiteras power outage suddenly reduced the SEN’s power supply by around 200 MW. The system was in a fragile situation due to the previous shutdown of eight thermal units due to breakdowns or maintenance, including Unit 1 at the Felton power plant, another of the island’s major generators.
What would happen next was predictable. The SEN, which had also suffered the loss of more than 200 MW due to fuel shortages and almost 300 MW due to limitations at operating plants, collapsed like a house of cards, once again leaving all of Cuba in the dark.
Just a few days earlier, a breakdown on a 220 kV line between Nuevitas and Las Tunas had shut down the eastern region and issued a warning. In explaining what happened and addressing the failure to meet official forecasts for the summer, Alfredo López, director general of the Electricity Conglomerate (UNE), admitted that the current electric power situation “is very difficult.” And he was not mistaken in his diagnosis.
The island’s prolonged energy crisis — caused by the age and poor condition of the thermoelectric plants, chronic fuel shortages and the lack of foreign currency to address this critical situation, catalyzed by U.S. sanctions — has been worsening over the last year, despite the installation of new photovoltaic parks and the SEN’s recovery strategy proclaimed by the authorities.
The record-breaking power outages exceeding 2,000 MW reached in recent months and the blackouts lasting 20 hours or more in various Cuban towns leave no room for doubt.
In this critical scenario, widespread disconnections like yesterday’s are no surprise and are already becoming a resigned part of the Cubans’ social imagination, as well as the government narrative, which places greater emphasis on the undeniable efforts of the sector’s workers to overcome the crisis, rather than on the crisis itself.
The outages and fragility of the SEN
In less than a year, between the final months of 2024 and the beginning of 2025, Cuba has suffered five total disconnections.
This figure speaks for itself of the fragility of the SEN during this period, the result — moreover — of a cumulative process that doesn’t even date back to the beginning of the current crisis, but much further back. Its basis is the long debt for capital maintenance and necessary replacements, along with poor decisions, suffered by the country’s aging power generation infrastructure.
If we look at the energy crisis of recent years to attempt a chronology of the system’s collapses, to be fair we would have to go back to the end of September 2022. At that time, Hurricane Ian not only left much of the western region without power due to the damage suffered, but also caused a general power outage.
On that occasion, the cause was the “instability” caused by the differences in load and generation between the west and east of the country, at a particularly challenging time due to the meteorological event. The restoration of the SEN had to be carried out in this difficult scenario, and even so, many people did not have electricity until the hurricane damage was repaired.
It wasn’t until two years later, in October of last year, that the next total power outage occurred, although breakdowns and partial outages occurred before — and after — such as those that left the center and east of the country without power in February 2023.
Chronology of power outages
From the final quarter of 2024 to date, the overall outages in the SEN have been as follows:
1- October 18, 2024: Like this Wednesday, an “unforeseen outage” at the Guiteras thermoelectric plant was the cause of the collapse that occurred around 11:00 a.m., one day after the government declared a “national energy emergency” amid a severe surge in blackouts. Recovery lasted almost five days, with further outages while work was underway.
2- November 6, 2024: Less than a month after the previous outage, the SEN collapsed again during Hurricane Rafael. The outage occurred shortly before 3:00 p.m., due to “a simultaneous tripping of several circuits due to the impact of the winds,” according to the UNE. As happened during Hurricane Ian, the restoration efforts were marked by the damage caused by the storm.
3- December 4, 2024: The Guiteras was again responsible for the disconnection. The massive blackout occurred in the early hours of the morning, at 2:08 a.m., due to a “trip of the automatic switch” at the Matanzas power plant. This time, however, the recovery was faster and the system was back online in just one day thanks to the power supply of the main generating plants.
4- March 14, 2025: The fourth collapse in six months and the first of 2025. It occurred at 8:15 p.m. and was not caused this time by a meteorological phenomenon or a breakdown at one of the country’s main thermoelectric plants, but rather by a breakdown at the Diezmero substation in Havana, which caused a “high oscillation” in the SEN (electric power system). Complete reconnection took two days.
5- September 10, 2025: For the third time, a breakdown at the Guiteras substation led to a general blackout in Cuba, the fifth in just under a year. Twelve hours later, most of the country was still in the dark, although 500 MW was being generated, a figure that rose to 1,000 MW at 6:00 a.m. this Thursday. Shortly after, almost the entire country was reconnected, although some territories still remained unconnected.
Recovery and future outages?
The recovery strategy followed now is the same as in previous outages. It is based on building microsystems in the different provinces, primarily using diesel and fuel oil generation, and also using Energás plants.
Then, the provinces are connected regionally as their systems are strengthened and the available thermoelectric plants, which take longer to come online, can be energized. Finally, when the conditions are right, the full connection is carried out.
This is arduous and progressive work, prioritizing key locations such as hospitals and water pumping plants. Furthermore, the process is not without setbacks and further power outages, such as the one that occurred this Wednesday in Havana, which forced a restart of recovery in the capital.
However, the fact that the SEN is fully connected does not mean that all Cuban towns have electricity. Difficulties and local disconnections could still persist, and many people will remain in the dark due to the high deficit in generating capacity, which has been unable to meet demand throughout the day and night for months.
This deficit marks — or, in fact, darkens — Cuba’s electric power landscape, and its long-standing causes are a perennial sword of Damocles. As long as they cannot be resolved through sustained actions and the SEN maintains its current precarious condition, the efforts of electricity sector workers may not be enough.
The next outages could be a matter of time.
