What you need to know about the failure in the electrical grid that plunged Cuba into darkness

HAVANA: Millions of people in Cuba were left without electricity for two days after the country’s power grid was cut when one of the island’s main power plants failed. The widespread blackout that hit the county was the worst in years.

Authorities were able to restore power to some people on Saturday, but it was unclear when power would be fully restored across the country.

Here are some things you should know:

What happened and why?

About half of Cuba was plunged into darkness on Thursday night, followed by the entire island on Friday morning after the failure of the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant in Matanzas province, east of Havana.

Even in a country that for decades has been accustomed to frequent outages amid a series of economic crises, the grid failure was unprecedented in modern times, aside from incidents involving powerful hurricanes, such as one in 2022.

Even as Cuba worked to fix power problems Saturday, the country issued hurricane watches for the far eastern provinces of Guantánamo, Holguín and Las Tunas as a tropical storm strengthened into Hurricane Oscar, the 10th hurricane of the season. Atlantic hurricanes of 2024.

Officials said the blackout that began Thursday was due to increased demand for residential and small- and medium-sized business air conditioners — up to 100,000 more this year alone. They also blamed breakdowns at old thermoelectric plants that have not been properly maintained due to a lack of foreign currency due to US sanctions, as well as insufficient fuel to operate some facilities.

Has this happened before?

While some homes have gone up to eight hours a day this year without electricity as the grid has become more unstable, the current power outage is considered the worst Cuba has suffered in years.

Officials said 1.64 gigawatts went offline during peak hours, about half of total demand at the time. The government implemented emergency measures to reduce demand, suspending classes, closing some state workplaces and canceling non-essential services.

Another major collapse occurred two years ago after Hurricane Ian, an intense Category 3 storm, damaged electrical facilities and took days for the government to fix.

Any political consequences?

It is unknown how Cubans will react if the current blackout is prolonged or repeated.

But problems with the power grid have helped spark street protests several times in recent years, including large demonstrations in July 2021 that drew international criticism of the government for its harsh response. There were also smaller demonstrations over blackouts in October 2022 and March of this year.

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

What’s next?

Officials said state power company UNE was using distributed generation to supply power to some areas of the island and that a gas-fired thermoelectric plant was starting operations.

Cuba gets its energy from huge thermoelectric plants like Antonio Guiteras and some smaller ones, which require crude oil to operate. The country produces about half of the crude oil needed, but must buy some of the rest on the international market, which can be difficult and expensive due to US sanctions. It has also relied on allies such as Venezuela and Russia for cheaper fuel.

Authorities have been working since last year on a project to improve the island’s electrical grid by using alternative energy sources. A project to build 31 centers that generate solar energy is underway and is expected to be completed next year.

“We are dedicating absolute priority to addressing and solving this very sensitive energy contingency,” wrote the president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, in X. “There will be no rest until it is restored.”

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