Our purpose is to advance the energy transition and our independence from import of fuels.  

The Government Program for the recovery of the National Electric System is a first priority goal: to end the bothersome and costly blackouts.

Wennys Díaz Ballaga | internet@granma.cu, Susana Antón Rodriguez | susana@granma.cu and Carmen Maturell Senon | internet@granma.cu

December 18, 2025

The Minister of Energy and Mining, Vicente de la O Levy, explained the advances of the Government Program for the recovery of the National Electrical System, a goal he rated as first priority to end the bothersome and costly blackouts.

Despite this focused goal, he explained, there are much broader purposes that include energy transition and the achievement of independence from fuel imports. We had to advance our own solutions, he said and underlined that Cuba has to implement an energy transition program that applies to the entire national territory.

Tangible results: Energy generations distributed and solar Parks sites.

The Minister pointed to concrete advances since the beginning of the Program as follows:

· Distributed Energy Generation: Currently the technical availability grew from 350 MW to more than 1100 MW. This growth was vital during the recent hurricane, when a few provinces had more energy during the hurricane than when the National Energy System was connected, and this was thanks to the work done with solar parks and generator sets.

· Generator Sets: Actually there are more than 11 900 groups supporting vital centers, with an availability of more than 80 percent. «There was no hospital stopping functioning», he said during the cyclone.

· Photovoltaic solar parks: We advance towards our goal for a thousand MW installed by the end of this year, with 51 parks. «There are already almost 800 MW» and this week we will complete eight more. This program is a collective work in which our entire industry, Armed Forces, the Ministry of Building and all the territories are included».

Impact on the System and Saving fuel

The incorporation of renewable energy is already showing a direct impact, he underlined that solar generation has had daily peaks of more than 700 MW, overcoming even the 30 percent of the national generation of electric energy at some points of the day.

This contribution prevents blackouts that often take place at times of peak demand (from 1800 to 2000 MW), and extend «during the 24 hours of the day». «If we did not have these solar Parks…the situation would be challenging during the entire 24 hours», explained the Minister.

Energy transition «brings with it a considerable decrease in the consumption of fuels».

The plan, he argued, not only focuses on electricity but in the entire system of fuel. A priority has been to «stop degrowth» on the national production of oil and gas, whose infrastructure was in a similar state of deterioration to the thermoelectric plants.

We managed to assign resources that would allow us to close this year with an increase of more than 85 000 tons of oil and gas.

The production of gas «has broken all the records», reaching more than 2.5 million cubic meters daily, and they are used in generation of electricity, he informed.

Investments and management of imported fuels

The chief of MINEM highlighted that the country has destined more than 1 100 million US dollars of its own resources to this comprehensive Program, financing distributed energy generation, solar Parks and critical Works like the recovery of the base for supertankers in Matanzas, tanks built with roofs in place and in the process of filling.

With respect to the import of fuels, there is more flexible management and policy in place: «This is not a boat we have to buy complete…we can buy small amounts in function of our financial capacities». This has allowed us to keep a level of physical inventory in the country and assign fuel to export firms so they do not have to stop production.

The Minister of Energy and Mining, Vicente de la O Levy, informed that the Government Program predicted the recovery of 1 400 MW in thermal generation, and in this there capitals of maintenance and investment included. Among these projects he highlighted the Felton 2 unit, about which he affirmed: «Never stop working in Felton 2» and an important advance is expected in 2026. He clarified that it will not end that year, but that significant progress will be achieved.

 

Within this Program of Recovery, the Minister detail the state of a few units as follows:

Finished: the capital reparation of block 3 of CTE Carlos Manuel de Céspedes (in April); the machine 5 of CTE Antonio Maceo, Renté in Santiago de Cuba (in October), and of Unit 2 of CTE Ernesto Guevara en Santa Cruz, (to start this month).

 

About Céspedes 4, De la O Levy explained that this unit has finished its maintenance and was started with optimal parameters, it was stopped to complete measurements and during the second start suffered a serious failure. «There was a failure of importance», he explained.  Still, he explained, «the resources are there, spare parts are available so they are working on it», and the technical cause of the failure was identified, even if repairing it will take us some time it will be less than previous repairs.

 

Energy Sovereignty Strategy has been validated by the Context.

De la O Levy underlined the Program of Recovery as a long term task in search of sustainability with our own resources. «When we talk about sovereignty we are saying that we need to maintain the National Energy System (SEN) with crude from Cuba, and with gas produced in Cuba, with power from the Sun, wind and other resources that Cuba has», he said.

 

He also explained that the actual international situation has «arrived to make our life more challenging», a situation that validates even more our strategy of depending only on our own resources.

 

Design: Priority so our Economy is not stopped

 

Recognizing that the situation is far from resolved, he affirmed: «we do not think that anything is resolved to a high percentage», because we still have long hours of blackouts.   He informed that the design, approved by the National Defense Council (CDN) is to not stop exporters, not stop food production and to protect national defense with total priority».  He admitted this implies sacrifices because «energy may not be enough for all», but it is crucial not to stop the economy.

In another moment he announced the implementation of the photovoltaic systems with batteries to supply stable electricity as priority to essential sectors with a particular focus on the eastern part of our country.  

 

Goal: Electrification of 100%  of isolated housing units

 

As part of this program the Minister shared that actually there are 5 000 photovoltaic systems in Cuba destined to ensure the access of electricity to all the housing units currently unconnected. There are 2 200 houses without electricity of any kind, and we plan on covering 100% of them with this technology.  The rest of the systems will be used to ensure that housing units that today count with only four hours of electricity thanks to combustion motors, without removing them, will count with both energy technologies so they have more access. 

Translation by NSCUBA (Nova Scotia)

 Two blankets for the affected: tiles and sensibility

In Santiago de Cuba more than 137 000 housing units suffered some form of damage because of the hurricane.

Luis Alberto Portuondo | internet@granma.cu

16th December 2025 

As resources arrive they are assigned to people according to priority. Picture by Luis Alberto Portuondo

Santiago de Cuba. –When Obed Estrada Núñez saw the roof of his home partially destroyed by the winds of hurricane Melissa, he tried to recover as many roof tiles as he could «I tried to recover as many as I could with help from neighbors in the hope of re-establishing the top». María Ramos Ferrer was not as lucky because everything was destroyed «and my husband and I are older adults». Both are residents of the head of the municipality and are still waiting for the visit of the commission evaluating damages that would then proceed to deliver resources they need.

The other face of the coin was found at the Processing Office (Oficina de Trámites) of the Defense Zone (ZD) Enma Rosa Chuy. «My forms have been approved already and I am going now to the point of sale to pick up the tiles I need», she assured me, said Edita Delás Mendoza, from the San Luis municipality.

«Here we work seven days a week because of the arrival of tiles and other building materials, more than 150 families have already received resources, and we move forward to deal with 718 cases already approved by the commission from a total of  872», said to Granma María Agustina Rosales Portuondo, who heads this office and who never forget the hard work she had lived in October 2012, «after the Sandy cyclone which seriously hit our province, and I was the one dealing with it as I had the same kind of responsibilities».

Minutes after Edita received her tiles at the point of sale.

The Council of Municipal Defense (CDM) destined many trucks from the transportation base, «with the goal of delivering the resources assigned to each house; the state assumes expenses and I would be willing to work until we complete the last transport», said Luis Suárez Ramírez, driver of one of the trucks.

There were 137 554 housing units affected that, until this moment, are still being counted in the province. «The commission functioning to this effect in each of the 127 defense zones, close to 90 000, even if an important number of municipalities of Santiago de Cuba, Palma Soriano and Contramaestre are still missing, this last  strongly affected by Melissa», said Danislay Hechavarría Duvalón, chief of the  Housing of the Provincial Defense Council (CDP).

 Little by little we get over the hit of Melissa

The severe damages done to the infrastructure in Santiago proves that this was the territory most affected by the hurricane.  «Just to mention some examples, there were more than 22 000 total roof collapses and 66 139 partial roof collapses. Of them close to 5 000 of the total affected have already received resources. CDP decided that processing offices and points of delivery of materials remain open and functioning everyday. We have received more than 114 000 tiles -between zinc and cement with fiber- and 90 percent of them are destined to housing», explained Hechavarría Duvalón.

In December the process continues, including technical files and procedures so each affected is aware of what needs to be done at the commercial points of sale and at the Bank branches.

«Some materials are donated and its delivery is free of charge, others have to be paid either in cash, bank credits or bonuses -sometimes of up to 99 percent, even some people qualify for a mix of the three. In all cases the state covers 50 percent of the costs, she added.

Regarding subsidies, the administration council of each municipality has to respond within 24 hours after the request. Some pending from hurricane Sandy, about 6 000 were included with Melissa, with their priority they had explained to the Chief of the CDP in charge of Housing. In this case priorities define and organize attention paid, focusing on vulnerability, like for instance in the case of mothers with multiple children and workers. Commissions in charge of visits are made up of delegates by zone, social workers and housing technicians. «It is hard work that includes high sensitivity as well as a level of objectivity», explained Solans Munive Pozo, who received as part of her training as technician had 83 homes in her charge. «It is part of accompanying each person affected, even though many of us also suffered losses, housing or other losses», explained Anisleidis Ramos Hernández, who in the last few days checked damages in 55 housing units.

 «Our visit is not only to evaluate the unit, but also the socio-economic situation of the family group, and from there proceed with the subsidy applications, financial support and delivery of basic items as required» explained Daisy María Salazar Álvarez, social worker. Alexis Pozo Castillo explained: «I went to the Processing Office and to my delegate and the answer I received was that I had to wait, and it took 15 days», Alexis is a resident of Ciudad Heroe, Altavista, where there were more than 67 000 housing units affected by the hurricane.

«The work at the points of sale has to be fast, but challenges with the electric Flow limit functioning for posting and payments, there is also a deficit of personnel reason why the effort made by those of us working in Commerce is extraordinary, this is a sector with low salaries and suffers strong exodus of workers», explained Adael Castillo Lima, administrating the shop selling building materials in El Dragón.

There is a lack of basic construction materials, like cement and steel, and within our territory there are a number of ways to deal with this. One example is the building of housing type iv in the mountain and urban areas, which includes adapting other buildings available, and also converting containers into housing units for 3 or 4 people that include two rooms, bathroom, kitchen and living, and are set in lots of 8 by 16 meters with possibilities of enlarging adapting to the needs of families.

According to Yamni Ferreiro Canet, chief of the Coordinating Office of the Construction Company Group here, «in the shops of Santiago de Cuba, Palma Soriano y Contramaestre the adaptation of containers is moving forward. It is an experience from other lands that we are applying to our country».

On top of this, the production of bricks, tubes and clay connectors was re-started  «dry bricks, stone bricks, lime and other products in each of the nine municipalities In Mella, for instance, we have provided nine housing units to the families that would live in them», said Jesús Vera Shelton, director of the Empresa Provincial de Materiales de la Construcción (Building Materials Provincial Company).

 The voice of those who were most affected

For Maricel Cabrales Toro –neighbor of Los Negros, Contramaestre–, the total collapse of her home was one of the most painful events in her life. She recognizes the help she received from the Processing Office but she found that some of the technicians in charge of certifying damages «seem a bit insensitive and do not know how to address you and explain what is relevant». During the visit to the debris left of her home, the technician informed me that because it was a total collapse and there were no available resources at this time for this type of situation they will not complete a report at this point.

Later when I visited the Office, they asked me to sign a document in which they agreed to classify the damage as «total collapse of the roof; as if figures in our file», Maricel complains, «but in truth it was a total collapse of our home, nothing remained only the floor».

In the same area, Belkis Cámbara Zayas, 68 years old, detailed a painful but hopeful situation: «The cyclone left me without a roof. It was very hard, one works so much to have a home and then in a minute this happens, to see my home like that, the television set ruined, the mattresses, the clothes. But I tell you something: help arrived fast, I felt not abandoned. I went to the point of sale of materials, and they treated me well, I completed all the paperwork and they gave me my tiles, hooks and screws. They even assigned a truck to bring it all here, to my door», explained the cheerful grandmother.

In Palma Soriano, Orestes Ávila Trimiño explained: «first I went to visit my delegate who told me clearly the procedures; then I went to our ZD local to be included in the list with others affected, they told me that we had to wait for the technician to complete a report, about a month after I had not being visited so I am worried because I lost everything after Sandy and I am still waiting for someone who helps me raise my home»

Translation by NSCUBA (Nova Scotia)

 «I do not want to waste my lucidity in useless rest»

Doctor Luisa Gainza González shared in a conversation with Granma details of her large and fruitful professional life.

Madeleine Sautié | madeleine@granma.cu

December, 2025

Dr. Luisa Gainza González Works actually in the Granma newspaper medical consulting office at the age of 83. Picture: Juvenal Balán

In explaining who we are, often, words are redundant. Then, what is to be done, how do we proceed together with those we walk with and tell us more than a biography or the story they themselves can share.   

We saw Luisa meeting with the workers of our center when we were preparing ourselves to parade on May first. Later, with a great team of our newspaper, she joined the agriculture volunteer work team convened by the Party. Many of us thought about her but nobody dared to tell her that at age 83 the work will be too tough for her, and nobody dared because you can sense the strong will emanating from her and we believed she might not easily accept such recommendations.

Doctor Luisa Gainza González Works in the consulting room of our center, called University polyclinic Dr. Cosme Ordóñez, of the Square of the Revolution (Plaza de la Revolución). We went there to talk with her and on the table there was an envelope that she said she searched for a few days earlier, as soon as she learnt about our interest in listening to her.

The documents she treasured are proof of her many achievements and her long medical career, a life of giving to others. She has been 16 times National Vanguard in the National Union of Health Workers, three times fulfilling internationalist missions in Ethiopia, Angola and Venezuela. She has also provided services at the Provincial Directorate of Health and at the University of Havana, in national and international events of the House of High Studies and she has given a number of conferences outside of Cuba about the Cuban Health System.

Carefully kept, we also find medals and distinctions, among them the Medal of Literacy Campaign, the Medal in Commemoration of the 40 Anniversary of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (of Cuba) and carefully kept the distinction Jesús Menéndez, the distinction Manuel Fajardo Rivero and August 23^rd.

«I always wanted to be a doctor, but when I studied the career that I started in Santiago and finished in Havana, I had already graduated as a primary school teacher at the Normal School of Santiago de Cuba. Those were times of clandestinely and my mother was director of that school and when a teacher was missing she asked me to substitute. So I studied and graduated but my passion was always medicine».

Those distant memories dusted, Luisa remembers her professional life full of stories and anecdotes. In all of them there is, however, a common theme: her satisfaction in knowing that the patient who leaves is not the same one who arrived after sharing with a professional who listens, explains and supports him or her in fighting disease.

The doctor remembers many patients in foreign lands «always hopeful and humble, impacted many times by the presence of a doctor because some of them have never seen one before».

In her there is a spring that challenges rest. «I always respond to all calls, even those having to do with directors; sometimes I would like to be able to relive those challenging experiences because they have been very enriching», she says. This is why «I continue working despite my years of service and my advanced age. With me is that impetus and clarity, I do not want to waste them in useless rest».

After a reflexive silence, she says: «I still feel I am capable of bringing and returning a smile, and some hope, to all those who look for it to preserve their health, with the professional support of a doctor». 

Translation by NSCUBA (Nova Scotia)