According to Cuba‘s Ministry of Energy, the network went down at around 11 local time (5 pm CEST) on Friday. The reason was the failure of the largest thermal power plant in the country, Antonio Guiteras, in the city of Matanzas in the northwest of the island, according to the head of the ministry, Lazaro Guerra. Then the “massive” power outage happened.
Later, the national electricity company Union Electrica (UNE) announced that they had used “microsystems” to generate a minimum amount of electricity that would be used to restart thermal power plants and floating generators in several provinces of the country. But the effect was small at first. On Saturday, Cuban media reported another downing of the network.
Standing in Havana
The power outage brought Cuba’s capital, Havana, to a virtual standstill: schools were closed, traffic stopped and traffic lights failed. Even in the evening, the wide streets remained mostly dark, as reported by correspondents from the AFP news agency. Only hotels, hospitals and individual private buildings with emergency generators were connected to the network.
APA/AFP/Yamil Lage
Havana remained almost completely dark after the blackout
President Diaz-Canel had already announced on Thursday that Cuba was in a state of emergency due to the tightening of the US embargo against the communist country that has existed since 1992. Cuba is having trouble buying the fuel it needs to run its power plants. The country itself has limited fossil fuel refining capacity.
Accusations against US for blockade
On Friday, the head of state said the blackout was “another manifestation of all the problems the blockade is causing us”. On an online platform X he wrote about an ongoing “economic war” by the US against his country. Restoring energy supplies is an “absolute priority,” Diaz-Canel said.
Nationwide power outages in Cuba
After the failure of the largest power plant in Cuba, people are without electricity. Schools were closed and traffic came to a standstill. The island state is in an “energy emergency,” head of state Miguel Diaz-Canel said at a crisis meeting.
Prime Minister Manuel Marrero addressed Cubans in a televised speech on Thursday and blamed the poor state of the country’s energy infrastructure and the lack of heating oil, as well as an increase in energy consumption, for the crisis. “The biggest factor is the shortage of heating oil,” he said, according to a BBC report on Saturday.
The worst economic crisis in decades
Cuba is currently facing its worst economic crisis in thirty years. There are shortages of food and medicine, and there are chronic power outages. On Thursday, the national energy deficit reached 50 percent, prompting the government to suspend all non-essential public services to prioritize household power supplies.
APA/AFP/Adalberto Roque
The Cuban population is struggling with chronic shortages of energy, food and medicine supplies
Schools remained closed and companies had to reduce operations or close completely. Only hospitals and food production facilities were allowed to continue working without restrictions, as announced by state energy supplier UNE. Only the necessary personnel should be deployed in the remaining workplaces. The UNE did not give a forecast as to how long the outages would last.
Power plants are the selling and rationing of everyday life
Cuba gets its electricity from eight outdated thermal power plants that frequently break down or require maintenance, and from seven floating power plants. Power outages occur daily across the country. In the capital Havana, there have been repeated scheduled shutdowns and rationing of energy supplies over the years. Because of the power outages, there were repeated water shortages because the pumps were not working.
In 2022, the energy supply in Cuba collapsed completely throughout the country after Hurricane “Ian” hit the Caribbean island. In Havana, it took up to five days to restore the lights in most households. There were several protests against the poor state of energy supply and the poor state of supply in general, in March recently.