Cuba restores power to Havana after grid collapse
Cuba has restored power to nearly half of the capital Havana less than 24 hours after the national grid collapsed for the second time in a week, amid a US oil blockade that has dealt a major blow to the island’s already troubled energy infrastructure.
The Cuban Electricity Union (UNE) said the grid failed on Saturday evening after a major power plant in Nuevitas in Cuba’s eastern Camaguey province went offline, causing a cascading effect that cut off electricity to the country’s nearly 10 million people.
Nearly 500,000 homes and businesses in Havana (about 55 percent of the total), as well as 43 hospitals, were back online by Sunday afternoon, UNE said.
The grid operator was also preparing to fire up the country’s largest oil-fired power plant and expected the plant to be operational by the end of the day and production to increase significantly.
Life continued normally in much of Havana, despite ongoing power outages that have become a regular part of the daily routine in the capital even while the national grid remains operational.
Leoni Alberto from Havana, who said that he had to cook with wood several times a week due to blackouts, said, “We are stuck in the same deadlock.”
“This is pure madness. There’s no way around it.”
Officials also reported a gradual restoration of electricity in surrounding states, but dramatic diesel fuel shortages mean only a fraction of the grid capacity is ready for generation, meaning many regions will continue to see prolonged outages despite restoration efforts.
Cell phone service and internet remained poor across the country, but improvements were seen in most areas by the afternoon.
Havana resident Yordanis Lopez, like many in the capital, was still waiting for the lights to come back on at noon on Sunday. He said the outage left him in the dark in more ways than one.
“When the power grid goes down, social media networks go down too,” he said.
“You have no idea what happened.”
Cuba’s power grid stands on the verge of collapse and has been unreliable for months; Interruptions lasting hours and sometimes days are becoming the norm.
But Saturday’s grid failure was the third major power outage this month; On March 4, a major part of the system was shut down due to the sudden shutdown of a major thermoelectric generation facility. The power grid was also completely disabled on Monday for unexplained reasons.
Cuba has experienced a number of total blackouts in recent years, but two nationwide blackouts in one week are exceptional.
US President Donald Trump began taking measures to prevent oil from reaching the Caribbean island after Washington dismissed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on January 3. Venezuela had previously provided oil to its close ally on favorable terms.
Trump has since cut off Venezuelan exports to Cuba and threatened other countries with punitive tariffs if they sell oil to the island.
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