A day after a massive nationwide blackout left millions of Cubans without electricity, authorities were trying to reconnect the island's integrated energy system Saturday with gradual and limited success. (AP Video/Ariel Fernández and Milexsy Durán) Contact online >>
A day after a massive nationwide blackout left millions of Cubans without electricity, authorities were trying to reconnect the island''s integrated energy system Saturday with gradual and limited success. (AP Video/Ariel Fernández and Milexsy Durán)
Cuba''s electrical grid went offline Friday after one of the island''s major power plants failed, the energy ministry said. The announcement came hours after the government announced that one of the nation''s main thermoelectric plants, La Antonio Guiteras, had ceased operations at about 11 a.m. local time, with authorities saying it was only offline temporarily.(AP Video/Ariel Fernández, Osvaldo Angulo and Milexsy Durán)
A street vendor selling candles waits for customers during a massive blackout following the failure of a major power plant in Havana, Cuba, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
A resident prepares a soup over an open fire during a massive blackout following the failure of a major power plant in Havana, Cuba, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Residents eat outside their homes to avoid the indoor heat during a massive blackout after a major power plant failed in Havana, Cuba, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
A man drives his American classic car during a massive blackout after a major power plant failed in Havana, Cuba, Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
A man walks along a street with the aid of crutches during a massive blackout after a major power plant failed in Havana, Cuba, Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
A woman prepares to catch a tossed frisbee during a massive blackout after a major power plant failed in Havana, Cuba, Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
HAVANA (AP) — Millions of people in Cuba were left without electricity for two days after the nation''s energy grid went down when one of the island''s major power plants failed. The widespread blackout that swept across the county was the worst in years.
Authorities have restored power to some people in Cuba''s capital, where 2 million people live, but much of Havana has remained dark. The impact of the blackout goes beyond lighting, as services like water supply also depend on electricity to run pumps.
About half of Cuba was plunged into darkness on Thursday evening, followed by the entire island on Friday morning after the failure of the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant in Matanzas Province east of Havana.
Even in a country that for decades has been accustomed to frequent outages amid a series of economic crises, the grid failure was unprecedented in modern times, aside from incidents involving powerful hurricanes, such as one in 2022.
Even as Cuba worked to fix the power problems Saturday, the country issued hurricane watches for the far eastern Guantanamo, Holguin and Las Tunas provinces as a tropical storm developed into Hurricane Oscar, the 10th hurricane of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season.
Authorities said the outage that began Thursday stemmed from increased demand from small- and medium-sized companies and residences'' air conditioners — as many as 100,000 additional ones this year alone. They also blamed breakdowns in old thermoelectric plants that haven''t been properly maintained because of a lack of hard currency due to U.S. sanctions, as well as insufficient fuel to operate some facilities.
While some homes have spent up to eight hours a day this year without electricity as the grid has grown more unstable, the current power failure is considered Cuba''s worst in years.
Officials said that 1.64 gigawatts went offline during peak hours, about half the total demand at the time. The government implemented emergency measures to slash demand, suspended classes, and shut down some state-owned workplaces and canceled non-essential services.
Another major collapse occurred two years ago after Hurricane Ian, an intense Category 3 storm, damaged power installations and the government took days to fix them.
But problems in the electrical grid have helped sparked street protests several times in recent years, including large demonstrations in July 2021 that led to international criticism of the government for its harsh response. There were also smaller demonstrations due to blackouts in October 2022 and March of this year.
Authorities now say changes to electricity rates for small- and medium-sized companies, which have proliferated since they were first authorized by the communist government in 2021, are being considered.
Officials said the state-owned power company UNE was using distributed generation to provide power to some areas of the island and that a gas-fired thermoelectric plant was starting operations.
Cuba gets its power from huge thermoelectric plants like Antonio Guiteras and some smaller ones, which require crude oil to operate. The country produces about half of the crude needed, but must purchase some of the rest on the international market, which can be difficult and costly due to U.S. sanctions. It has also depended on allies like Venezuela and Russia for cheaper fuel.
Authorities have been working since last year on a project to upgrade the island''s electrical grid through the use of alternative power sources. A project to build 31 centers generating solar energy is under way and projected to be completed next year.
"We are devoting absolute priority to addressing and solving this highly sensitive energy contingency," Cuba''s President Miguel Díaz-Canel wrote on X. "There will be no rest until its restoration."
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