Granma Province runs out of liquefied gas due to lack of availability at the Santiago de Cuba plant
14ymedio, Madrid, December 30, 2025 — It was timely for the Granma Province television station to ask the population about their experience without propane. The local television station published a notice on its Facebook page, previously provided by the Provincial Territorial Fuel Marketing Division, warning that due to the lack of availability of propane canisters at the Santiago de Cuba plant, there would be no sales “until further notice.”
The report took note of the number of criticisms sparked by the entity’s announcement and decided to ask residents to share their experiences. “How is this situation affecting your community? We invite you to share your experience in the comments.” Few posts by the station have generated such a volume of responses – more than 100 so far – when most comments are usually about the daily power outage report, with about 24 replies. It is fair to note, however, that on December 26, a video of the “celebration” of the 67th Anniversary of the Revolutionary Victory in the municipality of Río Cauto drew more than 300 complaints, mostly critical: “Give that town some quality of life, they are dying while still alive. You should be ashamed of such a charade celebrating something that has not existed for many years,” one of many posts read.
The message about the lack of propane has accumulated countless complaints that reflect the state of affairs in the eastern province. “Our situation is truly sad. The end of the year arrives and people are under the same stress we have endured all year: no electricity, no water, no cash, scarce food, a basic ration basket that is completely out of sync (today the 29th, the six pounds of rice and three of sugar that were announced still haven’t reached the ration store). And an apparent normality that gives the impression that no one with decision-making power has any idea what the people are living through. They don’t even explain anymore. We only see apologies for the inconvenience caused. ‘Company management appreciates…’ Where is the understanding? No one understands,” wrote one user.
“At my distribution point, number 78 in Santiago de Cuba, located in San Félix, since distribution began they have only delivered twice,” argued another. “In my community this is affecting us a lot, because this area is one of those hardest hit by power outages. This is like a deserted mountain: all you hear is the sound of axes chopping firewood. Hopefully it will be restored soon. Happy New Year,” said another comment, somewhat more optimistic. Quite the opposite was a reader who retained not even a trace of the holiday spirit expected at this time of year: “How sad our lives are. No water, no electricity, no propane to cook the little that can be obtained. What is there to celebrate this December 31? And life goes on and nobody seems to care.”
“This is like a deserted mountain: all you hear is the sound of axes chopping firewood. Hopefully it will be restored soon. Happy New Year.”
The situation is discouraging, and not only in the eastern region, where yesterday another moment of panic was experienced when a fault on the “110 kV Renté-Santiago Industrial line, which supplies much of Guantánamo province,” disconnected that province from the National Electric System. The issue was resolved in a matter of minutes, but it has become impossible to tell when the grid is or is not connected. The state company was forced to clarify that once the line was repaired, “the electricity deficit in the province is due to lack of generation.”
While waiting to find out if the Antonio Guiteras power plant in Matanzas manages to reconnect properly to the system, the Island faces another day of energy shortages. Despite forecasts of very low temperatures for the end of the year, not exceeding 18 degrees Celsius (64.4 F), demand remains very high relative to the limited generation available. Expected availability during peak hours is just 1,570 megawatts, less than half of the country’s required 3,300 MW, so an impact of 1,760 MW is anticipated for that time slot.
The rest of the day should theoretically be better. Demand is much lower, at 2,100 MW, and although production is also limited at 1,420 MW, the maximum impact will be 950 MW. Breakdowns at unit 5 of the Mariel thermoelectric plant, unit 2 of Felton, and unit 6 of Renté add to the maintenance work on unit 2 of Santa Cruz and unit 4 of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes in Cienfuegos.
Nevertheless, the problems come mainly from distributed generation, which has 93 plants offline, totaling 1,039 megawatts on New Year’s Eve.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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