The Cuban electrical network collapsed again this Monday, August 3, when the Government was trying to restore it after the general blackout on Sunday night. It is the sixth national outage of the year and the eleventh in two years of a crisis caused by the thermoelectric plants built in the sixties and the US oil blockade, which left the island almost without crude oil since January. In Havana the daily cuts exceed twenty hours and the unrest is expressed in banging pots and pans.
First modification: 08/04/2026 - 04:15
Cuba lives another day in the dark. The system went down again this Monday, August 3, in the midst of a recovery operation, just a few hours after the blackout that left the island's nearly ten million inhabitants without service on Sunday, shortly before 11:00 p.m. local time.
The news director of state television, Lázaro Manuel Alonso, attributed the relapse to a failure in reconnection and wrote on social networks that, despite the progress of the day, "an oscillation triggered the collapse."
Read alsoPetro visits the "attacked" Cuba: what does his last official trip as president of Colombia represent?
On Saturday, a partial disconnection of the National Electroenergetic System (SEN) had already left half of Cuba without electricity, and twenty-four hours later the outage became national.
In July there had been three general blackouts in just over a week, along with a record deficit: up to 74% of the country without service simultaneously, in this case not due to a specific breakdown but due to generation inability.
To display this YouTube content, you must allow advertising and audience measurement cookies.
An extension on your browser appears to be blocking the video player from loading. In order to view this content, you must disable it on this site.
Regarding the causes, there are two versions: Havana blames the US trade embargo in force for more than six decades, while Washington maintains that the blackouts are a consequence of the mismanagement of the Cuban state economy.
The figures from the system itself point to a double problem, between old machines and fuel that does not arrive.
A thermal park from half a century ago
The Government describes the situation of the SEN as critical and extremely tense. Most of the thermoelectric plants, which provide around 40% of the generation, were built in the sixties and seventies, and every day more than half of the 16 available units are out of service due to breakdowns or maintenance.
Specialists estimate a useful life of between 30 and 35 years for this type of infrastructure, a period that is shortened when the manufacturer's maintenance is not met and heavy oil is burned, with a high sulfur content that corrodes the facilities.
Independent estimates place the cost of reviving the electrical grid at between $8 billion and $10 billion.
Venezuelan crude oil was cut in January
The other 40% of the generation depends on engines that run on imported diesel and fuel oil, which today are practically stopped.
In January, after the fall of Nicolás Maduro and Washington's threat to apply tariffs to countries that supplied Havana, the flow of Venezuelan crude oil, Cuba's main energy source for two decades, was interrupted. Mexico also suspended its shipments.
In the last seven months, only one important shipment arrived on the island: the Russian oil tanker Anatoli Kolodkin, with 740,000 barrels, about 100,000 tons, which barely alleviated the cuts for about fifteen days, especially in the capital.
The official commitment is to solar energy, with Chinese support: a program of 92 photovoltaic parks and about 2,000 megawatts of installed power, of which 54 already inject energy, according to the Electrical Union.
The contribution is noticeable while there is sun, but the country installed very few storage batteries, so the peak demand at night is once again in the hands of the old thermal plants.
Read alsoCuba continues its opening: it will allow the extraction of oil and natural gas to private parties and foreigners
Twenty hours without light and cacerolazos
In Havana the daily outages exceed twenty hours and in the rest of the provinces they extend up to three days in a row. Added to this is almost paralyzed public transport, hospitals that provide minimal services and an escalation of prices in informal markets, with food and medicines at the forefront.
The unrest was already visible in the street, with banging of pots and pans, sit-ins on Havana avenues and burning of garbage cans. And the return of the service does not mean much either: when the SEN manages to rise, the generation is enough to provide a good part of the country with just a couple of hours of electricity per day.
With EFE and Reuters
Related keywords
The content you requested does not exist or is no longer available.
