In Havana, the dominant sound is the roar of generators, keeping minimal lights on as night approached. / 14ymedio
The state Electric Company reported at 7:00 local time (ET) that the disconnection occurred around 6:30 p.m. nationwide.
By 14ymedio
HAVANA TIMES — Barely five days after the most recent collapse, this Saturday the national electric system (SEN) has once again completely failed. The Sancti Spíritus Electric Company reported around 7:00 pm that the disconnection of the SEN occurred at approximately 6:32 pm, but earlier, Telegram channels of the Electric Company had already filled with messages warning of it.
This is the third system failure in less than a month, including the partial one on March 4, which left two-thirds of the country without power, from Camagüey to Pinar del Río. On that occasion, the cause was a breakdown at the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant in Matanzas. However, there were no clear reasons for Monday’s collapse or this Saturday’s. The Communist Party / government outlet Cubadebate stated: “It is the third outage in the month of March, following the imposition of a fuel blockade carried out by the United States government against Cuba.”
Between late 2024 and early 2025, five disconnections of national or regional scope were recorded, some caused by failures in key units and others by extreme generation deficits, which forced entire blocks to be shut down to avoid greater damage. On several occasions, the total collapse of the National Electric
System left the country in darkness for long hours or days, with slow and staggered restoration processes through microsystems.
Recovery after the most recent collapses has been difficult due to the lack of fuel—worsened over the past two months by the oil blockade—needed to operate those microsystems or “micro-islands” that supply specific areas.
Even without a national collapse power outages have been constant for numerous months, and many parts of the country only receive 2 to 4 hours of electricity per day. Most productive activities have been partially or totally paralyzed.
Today’s blackout coincides with the presence in Havana of the “Convoy Nuestra America”, a delegation of around 650 visitors from 33 countries belonging to pro-Cuban government organizations and platforms, including politicians such as Spain’s Pablo Iglesias and Britain’s Jeremy Corbyn, who on Friday were received with great ceremony at an event presided over by Miguel Díaz-Canel.
First published in Spanish by 14ymedio and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.
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