Much of Cuba was still without electricity on Saturday morning after a nationwide power grid failure the previous night. The outage affected 10 million people and has renewed concerns about the country’s outdated power infrastructure.
According to the grid operator UNE, only about 225 MW of power was being generated at sunrise, which is less than 10% of the total demand. This was only enough to supply essential services like hospitals, water, and food production.
Authorities stated that they had started the process of restarting the country’s old power plants but did not provide a timeline for when power would be restored.
UNE officials reported that the grid failure occurred around 8:15 p.m. (0015 GMT) on Friday evening after an old part of a transmission line at a Havana substation malfunctioned, triggering a chain reaction that shut down power generation across the island.
This grid collapse follows a series of nationwide blackouts late last year that severely impacted Cuba’s already fragile power system, which has been strained by fuel shortages, natural disasters, and the ongoing economic crisis.
Many Cubans outside of have been experiencing rolling blackouts for months, with outages lasting up to 20 hours a day in recent weeks.
Havana remained largely without power on Saturday morning. Traffic was moving through intersections without working traffic lights, and cellular internet service was unreliable or unavailable in some areas.
Abel Bonne was talking with friends on Havana’s Malecon waterfront early Saturday, enjoying the sea breeze after a hot night without power.
“Right now, nobody knows when the electricity will come back on,” he said. “This is the first time this has happened this year, but it happened three times last year.”
Severe shortages of food, medicine, and water have made life increasingly difficult for many Cubans, leading to record numbers of people leaving the island in recent years.
Cuba attributes its economic troubles to the U.S. trade embargo, which consists of laws and regulations that complicate financial transactions and the acquisition of essential goods like fuel and spare parts.
A grid official stated on Saturday morning that Cuba has been unable to modernize its outdated transmission and generation infrastructure due to these restrictions.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump had recently increased sanctions on Cuba’s communist government, promising to restore a “tough” policy towards the long-time U.S. adversary.
Yunior Reyes, a bike taxi driver and Havana resident, was back at work on Saturday morning despite the blackout, worrying that his food supplies might spoil in the heat.
“We’re all in the same boat,” he said. “It’s hard work.”
“`