The Cuban authorities confirmed this Friday a new total blackout of their National Electric System (SEN) – the eighth so far this year – and announced the activation of recovery processes, amid the energy crisis hitting the island under pressure from the United States.
“A total disconnection of the Electric System has occurred. Recovery protocols are already beginning to be activated,” stated the Ministry of Energy and Mines of Cuba in a brief message on social media past 14:00 local time (15:00 Chile time).
The Electric Union of Cuba, which also reported the energy disconnection, indicated that it proceeded “immediately” to investigate its causes.
During this afternoon, the U.S. Embassy in Cuban territory confirmed the situation, pointing out that, “according to media of the Cuban regime, the cause of the collapse is being investigated and the estimated time to restore service is unknown.”
“Cell phone and internet outages have been reported”, the diplomatic mission noted in a post on X, then adding that “the Cuban electrical grid is increasingly unstable and multiple blackouts have occurred nationwide in recent months.”
“The electrical system remains vulnerable and additional regular blackouts have occurred with greater frequency and duration,” declared the U.S. embassy.
The island of 9.4 million inhabitants suffers constant power outages due to the obsolete state of its thermoelectric plants, according to AFP.
A situation that has worsened since January with restrictions on oil purchases by Washington, with today’s national blackout being the eighth so far in 2026 and the twelfth since late 2024.
As EFE pointed out, in recent weeks power outages have lasted more than 30 hours in the capital, Havana, while in other provinces they total more than 60 consecutive hours.
The blackouts also affect water supply and the telephone network throughout the country.
According to Telemundo, the Caribbean island needs a little more than 100,000 barrels of oil daily to meet its energy needs, of which it obtains about 40,000 from its national production, but the rest must be imported.
Additionally, various independent estimates suggest that between US$8 billion and US$10 billion would be needed to recover the country’s electrical grid.
