In recent news, a wave of power outages has hit Cuba, plunging the country into darkness. Cubans faced a second national blackout Saturday morning, shortly after authorities announced that electricity was gradually being restored.
According to a message posted on the Cuban Electric Union’s official Telegram channel, “At 6:15 a.m., a new total blackout of the national electro-energy system occurred. The Electric Union is working to restore it.” Despite recent announcements of small restorations of service in some areas, no precise figures have been provided on the number of homes regaining access to electricity.
Testimonies from Cubans on social media report a brief return of electricity in some areas before the blackout occurs again. These outages have serious consequences, depriving residents of running water and exposing perishable goods to the ambient heat.
These recent outages add to the ongoing energy crisis in the communist nation. Millions of people have been without power in recent days as the country’s aging power grid repeatedly collapsed.
Saturday’s outage follows a complete shutdown of Cuba’s electricity grid on Friday after one of the island’s main power plants failed, according to the energy ministry. Cuban officials blame the problems on a series of events, from increased U.S. economic sanctions to disruptions caused by recent hurricanes to the island’s dilapidated infrastructure.
In a televised address Thursday, Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz said that national production had been reduced to avoid a total grid failure. The situation has shut down many economic activities to prioritize powering the population.
Despite the challenges, health facilities across the country are running on generators and health workers are continuing to provide vital services. In Havana, traffic is disrupted by the absence of traffic lights, with only a few police officers trying to regulate traffic. Generators, rare in private homes, are only audible in a few places in the city.
Energy-saving measures have been put in place, with the cancellation of classes in schools and the closure of nightclubs and leisure centers. Only workers deemed “indispensable” are required to go to their workplace, according to the list of measures published on the state website Cubadebate on Friday..
This series of power outages has plunged Cuba into an unprecedented energy crisis, highlighting the vulnerabilities of its infrastructure and the urgency of investing in sustainable solutions to guarantee a stable supply of electricity to its population.