Island-wide blackout sweeps Cuba after power plant failure

By Patrick Oppmann, Mia Alberti, CNN, and Verónica Calderón, Gerardo Lemos, CNN en Español

Havana (CNN) — Cuba’s electrical grid shut down on Friday, plunging the whole country into a blackout after one of the island’s major power plants failed, according to its energy ministry.

In a statement on X, the ministry said “the failure” of the Antonio Guiteras Power Plant caused “the total disconnection of the National Electrical System” from 11 a.m. ET on Friday.

In Havana, motorists on Friday tried to navigate the city where no street lights appeared to be working and only a handful of police were directing traffic. Generators are a luxury for most Cubans and only a few could be heard running in the city.

The country’s health minister, José Angel Portal Miranda, said on X that the country’s health facilities were running on generators and health workers continued to provide vital services.

This week, Cuba’s increasingly energy-strapped government called for draconian measures to save power, including telling many workers to stay home.

Classes at schools were canceled from Friday through the weekend, nightclubs and recreation centers were ordered closed, and only “indispensable workers” should show up at their jobs, according to a list of energy-saving measures published by the state-run website Cubadebate earlier on Friday.

Millions of people on the communist-run island have been left without power over the last several days as the aging Cuban electrical grid repeatedly collapsed.

Cuban officials blamed a confluence of events from increased US economic sanctions to disruptions caused by recent hurricanes and the impoverished state of the island’s infrastructure.

In a televised address on Thursday, that was delayed because of technical difficulties Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz said much of the country’s limited production was stopped to avoid completely leaving people without power.

“We have been paralyzing economic activity to generate (power) to the population,” he said.

Marrero said fuel shortages had left much of Cuba in the dark but that shipments by boat in the coming days would improve the situation.

“We are not in an endless abyss,” he said.

On Friday, the US Embassy in Cuba issued a notice on X saying there was “no information on when power will be restored.” It called US citizens in Cuba, or those planning to travel to Cuba, to “take precautions,” including conserving water and food, and keeping mobile phones charged.

Struggling infrastructure

Cuba’s energy crisis is not a new problem. The island’s limited infrastructure has not received the maintenance it requires for years and recurring blackouts date back to the 1990s.

The situation was further aggravated in 2022 by a fire at a fuel facility in Matanzas, in the island’s west, which destroyed 40% of the country’s main fuel storage structure.

The Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, has warned since March that the conditions of the thermoelectric plants pose challenges for the country, according to statements provided to its state television.

In fact, seven of the eight thermoelectric plants that supply energy to Cuba are broken or under maintenance, according to a statement released this Wednesday by the Cuban Electric Union and the Ministry of Energy and Mines of the island.

The Cuban Electric Union has also reported that 37 power generation plants are out of service due to lack of fuel. These plants are in the areas of the Mariel, Mariel and Santiago de Cuba.

CNN en Español has requested comments from the Cuban Electric Union, as well as the Cuban government, to find out the number of people affected by the lack of electricity and what measures they are taking to improve the situation and is awaiting a response.

On Monday, Cuban authorities reported the installation of solar energy panels, which they hope will increase the energy generation capacity on the island. But the first of the announced projects – which would produce about 1,000 watts of electricity per hour – will only be ready in two years.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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