Millions of Cubans woke up Sunday to find their homes still without power after another partial grid failure overnight, deepening a crisis that has raised questions about the viability of government efforts to restore power.
The country’s top electricity official, Lázaro Guerra, confirmed a partial grid failure in Cuba’s western provinces, including Havana, late Saturday.
Technicians are working to resolve the problem, Guerra said, but did not provide a timeline for when power will be restored to the region.
The capital of nearly two million people appeared to be completely without power early Sunday as many Cubans lined up for subsidized rations and pondered the situation outside their homes.
State-run digital news channel CubaDebate reported that the country’s largest power plant, Antonio Guiteras, was back online on Sunday and would begin contributing to the restoration of service later in the day.
A third grid failure late on Saturday marked a major setback in government efforts to quickly restore power to exhausted residents already suffering acute shortages of food, medicine and fuel.
The clock was ticking as Hurricane Oscar made landfall over northeastern Cuba early Sunday, threatening to further complicate the government’s plans to restore power.
Cuba’s meteorological survey warned of an “extremely dangerous situation” in eastern Cuba. The entire region was largely without power or communications ahead of the storm, which packed winds of up to 100 mph (161 km/h) by midday Sunday.
Cuba’s national power grid collapsed for the first time around noon on Friday after the island’s largest power plant shut down, wreaking havoc. The network crashed again on Saturday morning, state media reported.
Early Saturday evening, authorities reported some progress in restoring power before announcing another partial grid failure.
“The process of restoring the electrical system continues to be complicated,” Cuba’s energy ministry told X.
RISING VOLTAGE
Reuters reporters witnessed two small protests overnight after a grid failure left Havana in the dark on Saturday, one on the outskirts of the capital in Marianao and the other in the more central Cuatro Caminos. Various videos of protests elsewhere in the capital began to appear on social media late on Saturday, although Reuters was unable to verify their authenticity.
Internet traffic dropped sharply in Cuba on Saturday, according to data from Internet monitoring group NetBlocks, as major power outages made it nearly impossible for most islanders to charge phones and get online.
“Network data shows Cuba remains largely offline as the island experiences a second nationwide power outage,” Netblocks said on Saturday.
Even before the grid outages, a massive power shortage on Friday forced Cuba’s communist-run government to send non-essential government employees home and cancel school as it tried to conserve fuel.
The government blamed deteriorating infrastructure, fuel shortages and rising demand for weeks of worsening blackouts – up to 10 to 20 hours a day across much of the island.
Cuba also blames the US trade embargo, as well as sanctions imposed by then-President Donald Trump, for continued difficulties in acquiring fuel and spare parts to operate and maintain its oil plants.
The US has denied any role in the network crashes.
Cuba produces little of its own crude oil. Fuel supplies to the island have fallen sharply this year as Venezuela, Russia and Mexico, once important suppliers, have reduced their exports to Cuba.
Ally Venezuela has halved its supply of subsidized fuel to Cuba this year, forcing the island to seek more expensive oil on the spot market.
(Except for the headline, this story was not edited by NDTV staff and was published by a syndicated channel.)
