The Cuban government announced on Saturday that some electricity had been restored in Cuba, after the island nation’s worst power outage in at least two years, leaving millions without power for two days.
Energy Minister Vicente de la O Levy said the country had 500 megawatts in its electrical grid early Saturday, compared to the three gigawatts normally generated. “Many substations in the West now have electricity,” he posted on social media platform X.
O Levy also said that two thermal electric power plants had returned and two others would resume operations “in the next few hours.”
About half of Cuba was plunged into darkness on Thursday evening, followed by the entire island on Friday morning after the station malfunctioned.
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The Havana Electricity Company said in a statement earlier Saturday that part of its western network was cut off “after one of the stations that was providing the service went out.” The problem has left some parts of the city in the dark again, with the total megawatts falling from 500 to 370.
The streets of the Cuban capital, where two million people live, were quiet on Saturday, with only a few cars passing by after a night lit with candles and lamps. The impact of power outages goes beyond lighting, as services such as water supply also rely on electricity to operate pumps.
A person drives a classic American car in front of a floating generator that has not produced electricity for several days in Havana, Cuba, Friday, October 18, 2024.
Ramon Espinosa/Associated Press
The power outage is Cuba’s worst in two years, after a Category 3 hurricane destroyed power facilities and took the government days to repair. This year, some homes spent up to eight hours a day without electricity.
Besides the Antonio Guiteras plant, whose failure on Friday affected the entire national system, Cuba has several other plants and it was not immediately clear whether they were still operating or not.
There is no official estimate for when the power outage will end. Even in a country accustomed to power outages as part of a deepening economic crisis, Friday’s collapse was massive.
The Cuban government announced emergency measures to reduce electricity demand, including suspending classes in schools and universities, closing some state-owned workplaces and canceling non-essential services. Officials said 1.64 gigawatts were offline during peak hours, about half of the total demand at that time.
A general view of the city during a nationwide power outage due to a grid failure in Havana, taken on October 18, 2024. Technical failures, fuel shortages and high demand have caused the country’s thermal power plants to constantly fail, forcing the government to declare an energy emergency and take measures such as shutting down Schools and factories.
Yamil Laj/AFP via Getty Images
Local authorities said the outage, which began on a small scale on Thursday, stemmed from increased demand from small and medium-sized businesses and residential air conditioners. Later, the power outages were exacerbated by breakdowns in old thermal power plants that were not properly maintained and a lack of fuel to operate some facilities.
Changes to electricity prices for small and medium-sized businesses, which have proliferated since the Communist government first allowed them in 2021, are also being considered.
& Edition 2024 The Canadian Press
