HAVANA (AP) — Cuba suffered a massive power outage Friday night affecting Havana and the country’s provinces that left millions in the dark.
Cuba’s Ministry of Energy and Mines said at around 8:15 p.m. local time an outage at the Diezmero substation on the outskirts of Havana had caused “a significant loss of generation in western Cuba and, with it, the failure of the National Electric System.”
The ministry said on its account on the social platform X that it is “working on the recovery process.”
The streets of Havana were dark and deserted, with light coming only from the windows of hotels equipped with generators. Internet service was affected.
People in provinces as far away as Guantánamo, Artemisa, Santiago de Cuba, and Santa Clara reported experiencing blackouts with just flickers of light.
Previously, the Electric Union, the state agency that regulates the sector, said in its daily report that peak-hour demand would be around 3,250 megawatts and the deficit would reach around 1,380 megawatts, meaning 42 per cent of the national energy system would be shut down. This figure is not the highest in recent memory.
Cuba suffered three widespread outages in its national energy system at the end of last year, plunging the island into darkness during a severe economic crisis.
Cuba’s power grid has suffered from regular blackouts, affecting over half of the nation during peak times. The disruptions are mainly due to fuel deficits and aging infrastructure. In several areas of the island, power is essential for cooking and pumping water.
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.
