Overview
- The national grid collapsed Tuesday when the Felton 1 generating unit in Holguín exited service and triggered an oscillation and abrupt frequency change that caused a full shutdown of the National Electric System (SEN), the Unión Eléctrica said.
- This outage is the third full-island disconnection in ten days, the fifth nationwide blackout so far in 2026, and roughly the tenth such collapse in the last 24 months, underscoring a pattern of repeated system failures.
- Cuban ministers point to decades-old thermo‑electric plants, missing spare parts and a lack of diesel for backup generators as root causes, and they say U.S. petroleum measures introduced in January under President Trump have worsened fuel and parts access.
- Restoration work is under way but past national outages have taken more than 24 hours to reach full recovery in many areas and have left some provinces without power for 30 to 72 hours, producing spoiled food, stalled services and public protests.
- Authorities are carrying out staged repairs and investigations while households expand small solar use, and analysts warn that without new fuel supplies, parts or investment prolonged blackouts and sharper economic and social strain are likely to continue.