Cuba’s electrical grid is back in operation, but generation is still insufficient

Cuba said late Wednesday it had reconnected its national power grid, although generation remained well below demand, a day after A failure in the plant will leave millions of people without electricity throughout the island.

Cuba’s Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, confirmed on X that the network was back online shortly before midnight on Wednesday.

But around the same time, the National Electric Union (UNE) said on social media that it was “serving” 880 MW to the system, a fraction of the typical maximum demand of 3,200 MW, suggesting that a large swath of the Caribbean island still without electricity.

Most Cuban residents experience hours-long rotating blackouts daily, even when the grid is operating at full capacity.

Cuba’s power grid has been on the brink of collapse for years, as fuel shortages, a series of natural disasters and the economic crisis have left the island’s government unable to maintain the system’s decrepit infrastructure.

Declining oil imports from Venezuela, Russia and Mexico pushed the system into total crisis this year, triggering several blackouts across the country that have sparked unrest and growing anger among the population.

The blackouts, along with shortages of food, medicine and water, have greatly complicated life on the island and caused a record exodus of its residents since 2020.

Cuba’s communist government blames the crisis on the decades-old U.S. trade embargo, which hampers some financial transactions and makes it difficult to purchase fuel and spare parts.

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