Widespread outage | Part of electricity has been restored in Cuba

(Havana) The Cuban government announced on Saturday that part of the electricity had been restored to the island after the breakdown of one of the country’s main power plants, which deprived millions of people of electricity for two days earlier.

Energy Minister Vicente de la O Levy said the country had 500 megawatts of energy in its power grid early Saturday. He posted on the social network X that “several substations in the west now have electricity.”

Mr O Levy also said two thermoelectric plants were back on track and two more would resume operations “in the coming hours”.

Nearly half of Cuba was plunged into darkness on Thursday evening, followed by the entire island on Friday morning, after one of the power stations failed.

Havana’s power company said in a statement earlier Saturday that part of its western system was disconnected “after the shutdown of one of the plants that provided the service.” This problem has left parts of the city in the dark once again.

The streets of the Cuban capital, home to two million inhabitants, were quiet on Saturday, with few cars circulating after a night lit by candles and lamps. The impact of the outage is not limited to lighting: services like water supply also rely on electricity to run pumps.

It was Cuba’s worst power outage in two years, after a Category 3 hurricane damaged electrical installations and it took the government several days to repair them. This year, electricity service has deteriorated, with many homes in the dark for hours each day.

In addition to the Antonio Guiteras power plant, whose failure on Friday affected the entire national system, Cuba has several others, of which it is not yet known whether they have remained functional.

No official estimate has been made as to when the outage will end. Even in a country accustomed to power cuts in the midst of an economic crisis, Friday’s supply collapse is unprecedented in modern times.

The Cuban government announced emergency measures to reduce electricity demand, including the suspension of classes, the closure of some state-owned workplaces and the cancellation of non-essential services. Authorities said 1.64 gigawatts were cut during peak hours, about half of total demand at that time.

Local authorities said the outage, which began on a smaller scale Thursday, was due to increased demand from small and medium-sized businesses and residential air conditioners. Subsequently, the blackout worsened due to failures in old thermoelectric plants that were not properly maintained and the lack of fuel to operate some facilities.

Changes to electricity rates for small and medium-sized businesses, which have proliferated since they were first authorized by the communist government in 2021, are also being considered.