Millions of Cubans still without power as crisis deepens

By Dave Sherwood

HAVANA (Reuters) -Millions of Cubans awoke on Sunday to find their homes still without power after another partial grid failure overnight, deepening a crisis that has raised questions over the viability of the government’s efforts to reestablish electrical service.

The country’s top electricity official, Lazaro Guerra, confirmed a partial grid collapse in the western provinces of Cuba, which includes Havana, late on Saturday.

Technicians were working to resolve the issue, Guerra said, but did not provide a timeline for when power would be restored to the region.

The capital of nearly two million residents appeared to be entirely without electricity early on Sunday, as many Cubans formed lines for subsidized rations and mulled the situation outside their homes.

State-run digital news outlet CubaDebate reported that the country’s largest power plant, Antonio Guiteras, was back online Sunday and would begin contributing to a restoration of service over the course of the day.

A third grid failure late on Saturday marked a major setback in the government’s efforts to quickly restore power to exhausted residents already suffering from severe shortages of food, medicine and fuel.

The clock was ticking as Hurricane Oscar bore down on northeastern Cuba early on Sunday, threatening to further complicate the government’s plans to restore power.

Cuba’s meteorological survey warned of “an extremely dangerous situation” in eastern Cuba. The entire region was largely without electricity or communication ahead of the storm, which packed winds as high as 100 miles per hour (161 kph) by midmorning Sunday.

Cuba’s national electrical grid first crashed around midday on Friday after the island’s largest power plant shut down, sowing chaos. The grid collapsed again on Saturday morning, state-run media reported.

By early evening on Saturday, authorities reported some progress restoring power before announcing another partial grid collapse.

“The process of reestablishing the electrical system continues to be complex,” Cuba’s energy ministry said on X.

RISING TENSIONS

Reuters reporters witnessed two small protests overnight after a grid failure left Havana in the dark late Saturday, one on the outskirts of the capital in Marianao and the other in the more central Cuatro Caminos. Various videos of protests elsewhere in the capital began to crop up on social media late on Saturday, though Reuters was not able to verify their authenticity.

Internet traffic dropped off sharply in Cuba on Saturday, according to data from internet monitoring group NetBlocks, as vast power outages made it all but impossible for most island residents to charge phones and get online.

“Network data show that Cuba remains largely offline as the island experiences a second nationwide power outage,” Netblocks said on Saturday.

Even before the grid failures, a dire electricity shortfall on Friday had forced Cuba’s Communist-run government to send non-essential state workers home and cancel school as it sought to conserve fuel.

The government has blamed weeks of worsening blackouts – as long as 10 to 20 hours a day across much of the island – on deteriorating infrastructure, fuel shortages and rising demand. 

Cuba also blames the U.S. trade embargo, as well as sanctions instituted by then-President Donald Trump, for ongoing difficulties in acquiring fuel and spare parts to operate and maintain its oil-fired plants.

The U.S. has denied any role in the grid failures.

Cuba produces little of its own . Fuel deliveries to the island have dropped significantly this year as Venezuela, Russia and Mexico, once important suppliers, have reduced their exports to Cuba.

Ally Venezuela slashed by half its deliveries of subsidized fuel to Cuba this year, forcing the island to search for more costly oil on the spot market.