Cuba plunged into darkness as the power grid collapsed again

Havana, Cuba
CNN
—

Cuba’s energy grid has collapsed, leaving millions without power. This is the latest in a series of failures on an island suffering from crumbling infrastructure, natural disasters and economic turmoil.

State-owned power company Cuban Electric Union said workers were trying to get power back online, but local officials warned residents that the difficult process of restoring power to aging Soviet-era power plants could take days.

Cuba’s largest energy producer, the Antonio Guiteras power plant in Matanzas, suffered an outage overnight that led to the collapse of the power grid on Wednesday, the company said.

Residents woke up in the dark early Wednesday morning. In Havana, the streets were almost pitch black as the sun rose over the capital. The only visible lights came from a handful of government facilities, large hotels and vehicle headlights.

The government has ordered the “suspension of work and teaching activities,” said Cuba’s Minister of Labor and Social Security, Marta Elena Feito.

“This measure will remain in place for the duration of the crisis. Vital services will continue to function and there will be no impact on salaries,” state media quoted her as saying.

Cuban officials say U.S. economic sanctions, tightened under the previous Trump administration, have further crippled the already struggling energy sector, although critics also note a lack of government investment in infrastructure.

For nearly a week in October, most of Cuba experienced near-total power outages, the worst power outages in decades.

Cuba’s Energy and Mines Ministry said “conditions are now more favorable than during the last shutdown” and that the system will be gradually restored. It also said it had already created “generation island” microgrids, the first step toward restoring power.

Still, Cubans will continue to contend with daily power outages that the government implemented as an energy-saving measure. Some of these planned outages may last more than 12 hours a day in communities outside Havana.

Cuba suffered from several power grid outages in October, initially due to a lack of fuel at power plants that were difficult to bring back online because they were aging. The country’s national power grid collapsed again when Hurricane Oscar struck in late October, killing at least seven people.

Another storm, Rafael, struck western Cuba as a Category 3 hurricane in early November, again causing power outages across the island and flooding parts of the western provinces. Days later, a magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck off the coast of eastern Cuba, just an hour after a magnitude 5.9 quake also shook the region. Homes and power lines were damaged and landslides were reported in several communities.

This story has been updated.