Failure in Cuba’s electrical grid plunges the country into darkness

Cuba suffered a blackout on Friday in much of its territory after a failure occurred in the country’s most important power plant, deepening a widespread energy crisis.

“After the unforeseen departure of the CTE (Thermoelectric Plant) Antonio Guiteras (…) the total disconnection of the National Electroenergy System occurred,” said the Ministry of Energy and Mines of Cuba on its X site.

As part of an energy emergency plan, the Cuban government decided to close schools, non-essential industries and sent most state employees home in an effort to conserve energy.

The outage of the Guiteras plant, in the western province of Matanzas, caused a total failure in the country’s network that left approximately 10 million people without electricity.

“The national electrical system collapsed. It is at total zero,” the electricity director of the Unión Electrica, Lázaro Guerra, told local television, who could not specify how long it would take to restore service.

The country has witnessed successive blackouts that are dramatically prolonged, even for an island accustomed to repeated periods of shortages. Entire provinces have been left without electricity for hours and many towns outside Havana operate with less than six hours of electricity a day.

Prime Minister Manuel Marrero blamed the current crisis on a perfect storm well known to most Cubans: the deterioration of electrical energy infrastructure, fuel shortages and increased demand.

“The situation we have been facing has been getting worse in recent days. The lack of fuel is the (cause) that is having the most influence,” Marrero said in a televised message Thursday night.

The Cuban Government said that nightclubs and recreation centers were also closing their doors, cultural activities for the state and private sectors were suspended, as well as non-vital government services.

He added that only employees of the state food and health care industries in hospitals remained on duty.

The Cuban government has long blamed the U.S. embargo, in place since the Cold War era, as well as a new round of sanctions under former President Donald Trump, for difficulties in acquiring fuel and spare parts to operate its oil plants.

The energy crisis on the island has made life increasingly complex for residents, who were already suffering from severe shortages of food, fuel, water and medicine, leading to an unprecedented exodus in the country in recent years.

Venezuela, Cuba’s largest oil supplier, has cut shipments to the island to an average of 32,600 barrels per day (bpd) in the first nine months of the year, about half of the 60,000 bpd shipped in the same period in 2023. , according to ship monitoring data and internal shipping documents from the Venezuelan company PDVSA.

Russia and Mexico, which have sent fuel to Cuba in the past, have also greatly reduced shipments to the island.

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