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Cuba’s national electrical grid collapsed late on Friday, leading to widespread blackouts in Havana and across the country and leaving millions of people in the dark.
Officials from the energy and mines ministry said an electrical substation in the capital failed about 8.15pm local time knocking out power to a large swath of western Cuba, including Havana, and causing the failure of the national electrical system, SEN.
The lights were out across all of Havana’s waterfront skyline, a Reuters witness observed, with only a scattered few tourist hotels operating on generators.
Reports on social media from outlying provinces both east and west of the capital city suggested much of the Caribbean island nation of 10 million people was without power. Internet service was also affected.
People in provinces as far away as Guantánamo, Artemisa, Santiago de Cuba and Santa Clara reported experiencing blackouts with just flickers of light.
The energy ministry said on X that it was “working on the recovery process”.
Earlier the Electric Union, the state agency that regulates the sector, said in its daily report that peak-hour demand would be about 3,250 megawatts and the deficit would reach around 1,380MW, meaning 42% of the national energy system would be shut down. This figure is not the highest in recent memory.
The grid failure follows a string of nationwide blackouts late last year that plunged Cuba’s frail and antiquated power generation system into near-total disarray, stressed by fuel shortages, natural disaster and an economic crisis.
Hours-long rolling blackouts have been the norm for months, with more than half of the country experiencing power cuts during peak hours. In many parts of the island, electricity is crucial for cooking and water pumping.
Severe shortages of food, medicine and water have made life increasingly unbearable for many Cubans, who in recent years have left the island in record-breaking numbers.
Authorities on the island have begun a program to install photovoltaic parks and promised that dozens of them will be ready this year. Blackouts previously prompted anti-government demonstrations in 2021, 2022, and 2024.
With Associated Press
