Cuba suffered a new nationwide blackout this Saturday due to a total disconnection of the National Electric System (SEN) at 6:38 p.m. local time, the second in less than a week and the seventh in a year and a half. The Ministry of Energy and Mines (Minem) reported the new incident on social media: 'A total disconnection of the National Electric System has occurred. Protocols for the restoration of service are beginning to be implemented.' For the time being, no possible causes for the disconnection have been reported. Cuba has been mired in a deep energy crisis since mid-2024, a situation that has worsened in the last three months due to the US-imposed oil embargo, leading to record power cuts. In the last two weeks, there have been two nationwide blackouts and a massive supply cut that left two-thirds of the island without electricity. The process involves starting to generate energy from quick-start sources (solar, hydroelectric, generation engines) to supply small areas, which are then gradually interconnected. The objective is to bring sufficient energy to the country's thermoelectric power plants as soon as possible, the backbone of electricity generation in Cuba, so they can start up again and produce large quantities of energy to meet demand. The essential problem that distinguishes this occasion (and Monday's) from previous ones is that the country currently has almost no diesel or fuel oil for its generation engines due to the US oil embargo. Energizing the thermoelectric plants without this fast-start energy source can be a challenge, as recently explained by the General Director of Electricity of Minem, Lázaro Guerra, after a massive blackout that affected about six million Cubans. Normally, the situation is already critical: cuts in Havana last about 15 hours a day, and in some regions, they have reached two consecutive days without service. Based on past experiences, the restoration of the SEN is a slow and laborious procedure that can take days.
