Granma Plunged into Darkness: Emergency Shutdown Disconnects Province from National Grid

The Cuban province of Granma experienced a complete blackout on Friday night after an emergency involving the region's largest thermoelectric plant led to its disconnection from the National Electric System. The outage occurred around 8:40 PM, as reported by the Granma Electric Company and subsequently shared by CNC TV Granma.

The immediate cause was a sudden drop in frequency detected while the CTE Lidio Ramón Pérez plant, also known as CTE Felton and located in Mayarí, Holguín, attempted to synchronize with the national grid. In response to this instability, the national system automatically activated a protection protocol, severing Granma's connection to prevent the collapse from spreading throughout the country.

The Granma Electric Company detailed that "around 8:40 PM, an emergency in the National Electric System led to the province's disconnection, as the CTE Lidio Ramón Pérez (Felton) was synchronizing to the electrical system, causing a sharp frequency drop. Consequently, Granma was disconnected to avert a national grid collapse."

Following the event, the National Load Dispatch took over the technical operations needed to restore power. The official statement from the entity noted, "The Load Dispatch is currently conducting maneuvers to reconnect the province to the National System," concluding with a brief apology: "We apologize for the inconvenience caused by this situation."

This recent blackout is not an isolated incident for Granma. Just ten days earlier, on June 23, the province faced a power outage due to a failure in the 110 kV transmission line between Renté and Santiago de Cuba, on a day when the national deficit hit 1,709 MW. Some circuits in the province have endured outages lasting up to 72 consecutive hours, with residents publicly demanding at least three hours of electricity daily for months.

The CTE Felton, which has an installed capacity of 330 MW, has a history of recurring failures. Its unit 2 was already out of order by July 2, just before the latest incident. On February 4, 2026, a disruption at the Holguín 220 kV substation caused by the Felton and Renté plants left four eastern provinces—Holguín, Granma, Santiago de Cuba, and Guantánamo—without electricity.

The national context exacerbates the situation further. On June 30, the maximum impact across the country reached 2,211 MW at ten o'clock in the evening, with generation availability barely at 1,100 MW against a demand of 3,200 MW. By July 1, Cuba was experiencing blackouts with a deficit exceeding 2,100 MW and a forecasted impact of 1,980 MW, with multiple units at the Máximo Gómez and Diez de Octubre plants also out of service.

In the past 18 months, the National Electric System has suffered at least five total collapses. The longest occurred in March 2026, when a nationwide blackout lasting around 29 hours affected the entire country following the unexpected shutdown of unit 6 at the CTE Nuevitas. In May 2026, the system collapsed with a record deficit of 2,113 MW. Daily power cuts in some regions exceed 20 hours; in Havana, they last up to 15 hours, and in interior provinces, they surpass 48 consecutive hours.

This crisis is attributed to decades of neglect of Cuba's thermoelectric infrastructure, compounded by the gradual reduction of Venezuelan oil shipments and a lack of fuel in over 100 distributed generation centers. While the regime issues apologies and promises of reconnection maneuvers, the residents of Granma and the rest of Cuba face entire nights in darkness without a clear resolution in sight.