Sunday saw the second-worst record in history, just 21 megawatts shy of the record set on April 23.
14ymedio, Madrid, 23 June 2025 — The night has not given respite to Cubans anywhere on the Island. All the gossip centered on the second historic event for electricity deficit, reached on Saturday and recognized this Sunday by the electric company of Villa Clara, although it affected the entire country. At peak time, the deficit was 1,880 megawatts (MW), only behind April 23, when it reached 1,901 MW.
The data was accompanied by a series of brutal statistics. Five of the 12 worst records in 2025 were in April, and the current month accumulates three “serious events” on June 17, 20 and 21, which mark, says the electric company from Villa Clara, an “upward trend.” In addition, all these data are even worse than those of 2024, including the critical month of November, when one of the three total disconnections from the national electricity system occurred.
The information was shared on the Facebook page of José Miguel Solís, a journalist specializing in energy who is often on social networks, popularizing what until then had a smaller audience, just the followers of the company of Villa Clara. The flood of comments was instantaneous, with endless reproaches from those who questioned the graph that reflected with two very distant upward lines the concepts of consumption and deficit. The tone of the response was: How can you talk about consumption when you have up to 22 hours a day without light?
“The high peaks occur after a blackout, since people have everything connected waiting for the current to arrive so consumption rises at that precise moment,” argued a Cuban living in Miami. “Get your neurons to work. This high consumption is from the favored circuits of the Party and the dance venues of Varadero and Havana, which are consuming the little current that is generated,” another refuted.
“The blackouts were horrible in the provinces, of course. Here they removed it three times, and we are on the same circuit as the hospital. They took it off, put it on, took it off, put it on…” says a Havana resident in Cayo Hueso. In the newsroom of 14ymedio, located in Nuevo Vedado, the power was cut off at dawn this Monday.
Monday is another day without news. The Electric Union (UNE) confirmed that on Sunday there was a deficit of 1,650 MW at 9:50 pm, the hour of greatest demand, although the contribution of the 16 solar parks was more than 1,800 MW. One customer was wondering how investments in solar are helping, and another answered, saying that everyone in the country had the same issue, and that those who have solar panels use them during the day and get enough power, but at night they have nothing.
Today, the maximum demand is estimated at 3,550 MW, while generation will remain at just 1,850 MW, which means a peak deficit of 1,770 MW. In addition to the failures of units 6 and 8 at Mariel and 2 at Felton (Holguín), maintenance work was carried out on units 2 at Santa Cruz del Norte (Mayabeque), 4 at Cienfuegos and 5 at Renté (Santiago de Cuba), for a total thermal deficit of 390 MW.
But in addition there are 96 distributed generation plants out of service due to lack of fuel, a total of 738 MW of deficit to which are added 97 MW that are not available due to lack of engine oil
But in addition there are also 96 distributed generation plants out of service due to lack of fuel, a total of 738 MW of deficit to which are added 97 MW, not available due to lack of engine oil.
The situation is alarming and customers are wringing their hands thinking about the possible repercussions of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which large quantities of crude oil pass for everyone, as a result of the open conflict between the US and Iran. The decision is pending approval by the Supreme Council, but the concern is extreme. “If the oil that was coming into Cuba was from Iran, we will have some dark vacations,” says a customer.
“So many meetings of collaboration with countries like Russia and China, so many agreements to be signed, so many trips abroad for officials to ask for help, and we don’t see the results. They distributed only a little propane in each province, and in many places only very few people received it. “When will the others? “someone asks. For the moment, complaints are once again limited to social media, but the straw that breaks the camel’s back may be coming.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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