The latest grid collapse has followed a series of nationwide blackouts in recent months.
Cuba’s national power grid collapsed once again, leaving millions of people without electricity being taken away.
According to an officer at Operator Union Electric (UNE), the grid failed on Friday evening, around 8:15pm (00:15 GMT).
At sunrise on Saturday, UNE said it was generating only small points of electricity. This is about 225 MW, or less than 10% of total demand. Authorities said parallel circuits are helping to provide electricity to major sectors such as hospitals.
“Some states have parallel circuits and generator units are beginning to synchronize,” Cuban President Miguel Diaz Canel said in X.
The island, which has 9.7 million residents, had already suffered from a nationwide blackout in the last few months of 2024.
The latest grid collapse this year is the first, but also comes as the island is battling one of its biggest economic crisis in 30 years. Cuba, hit by US sanctions, has relied on long-standing Venezuelan oil, but its supply is becoming increasingly unstable as the Caracas government tackles its own economic issues.
“Now no one knows when power will return,” resident Abel Bonne told Reuters about Malecon Waterfront Boulevard in Havana early Saturday.
Havana people already live with almost a day’s blackout of power, for 4-5 hours, but people outside the capital are facing a rolling blackout, which peaked in 20 hours a day in recent weeks.
“My God, this is terrible, we’re on a dark weekend,” Karen Gutierrez, a 32-year-old ice cream seller in Havana, told AFP News.
Andres Lopez, a 67-year-old resident of Eastern Holgin, added that he wasn’t expecting another blackout anytime soon.
“It really bothers me,” he said. “Let’s see when they bring it back to (power).”
Cuba blames its economic issues, a web of laws and regulations that complicate the US trade embargo during the Cold War, financial transactions, and acquisition of essential items such as fuel and spare parts.
US President Donald Trump recently pledged to tighten sanctions on the island’s communist-run government and restore longtime “severe” policies against the US enemy.
Meanwhile, to make up for the power shortage, Cuba is competing to install at least 55 solar farms equipped with Chinese technology by the end of this year.
Local governments say these facilities will generate approximately 1,200 MW of electricity. This is about 12% of the total nationwide amount.
