Huge power outage in Cuba leaves millions in darkness

Cuba’s national power grid has collapsed once again, leaving millions of people without electricity.

The grid failed on Friday evening about 8:15pm (00:15 GMT) after a breakdown at Diezmero substation in the capital, Havana, kicked off a chain reaction that shut down power generation across the island, according to officials at operator Union Electrica (UNE).

At sunrise on Saturday, UNE said it was generating only a trickle of electricity – about 225 MW, or less than 10 percent of total demand. Authorities said parallel circuits were helping provide electricity to key sectors, such as hospitals.

“Several provinces have parallel circuits and generator units are starting to be synchronised” with the national grid, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said on X.

The island of 9.7 million inhabitants had already suffered three nationwide blackouts in the final months of 2024, two of them lasting several days.

While the latest grid collapse is the first one this year, it also comes as the island battles one of its biggest economic crises in 30 years. Hit by United States sanctions, Cuba has for years relied on subsidised Venezuelan oil, but that supply is increasingly precarious as the government in Caracas grapples with its own economic problems.

“Right now, no one knows when the power will come back on,” resident Abel Bonne told the Reuters news agency on Havana’s Malecon waterfront boulevard early on Saturday.

People in Havana have already been living with near-daily power cuts of four or five hours, while those outside the capital have been facing rolling blackouts that peaked at 20 hours a day in recent weeks.

“My God, this is terrible, we’re in for a dark weekend,” Karen Gutierrez, a 32-year-old ice cream seller in Havana, told the AFP news agency.

Andres Lopez, a 67-year-old resident of the eastern province of Holguin, added that he had not been expecting yet another blackout so soon.

“It really bugs me,” he said. “Let’s see when they get it [the power] back on.”

Cuba blames its economic woes on a Cold War-era US trade embargo, a web of laws and regulations that complicate financial transactions and the acquisition of essentials such as fuel and spare parts.

US President Donald Trump recently tightened sanctions on the island’s communist-run government, pledging to restore a “tough” policy towards the longtime US foe.

Meanwhile, to make up for its electricity shortfall, Cuba is racing to install a series of at least 55 solar farms with Chinese technology by the end of this year.

Local authorities have said these facilities will generate some 1,200 MW of power, about 12 percent of the national total.