Cuba underwent a huge power outage on Friday evening affecting Havana and the country’s provinces that left millions in the dark.
The Cuba Ministry of Energy and Mines said that around 8:15 p.m. Local time, a Diezmero sub-station failure on the outskirts of Havana had caused “a significant loss of generation in the west of Cuba and, with it, the failure of the national electrical system”.
The ministry declared on its account on the social platform X that it “works on the recovery process”.
The streets of Havana were dark and empty, with light coming only from the windows of hotels that had generators. Internet service has been affected.
The inhabitants of the provinces as far as Guantánamo, Artemisa, Santiago de Cuba and Santa Clara said that they had undergone power outages with just sparklers of light.
Ramon Espinosa / AP
Earlier, the electrical union, the state agency which regulates the sector, said in its daily report that the peak demand for hours would be around 3,250 megawatts and that the deficit would reach approximately 1,380 megawatts, which means that 42% of the national energy system would be closed. This figure is not the highest in recent memory.
Cuba suffered Breakdowns in its national energy system at the end of last yearLeaving the island in the dark in the midst of a serious economic crisis.
The 2024 electricity failure was considered the worst of Cuba in two years after the Hurricane Ian marked landing as a category 3 storm in 2022 and damaged electricity installations.
Cuba’s electrical network was prey to frequent breakdowns, with more than half of the country with power cuts during peak hours. The breakdowns are mainly caused by fuel shortages and aging infrastructure. In many parts of the island, electricity is crucial for cooking and pumping water.
The island authorities have started a program to install photovoltaic parks and promised that dozens of them will be ready this year. Blackouts previously caused anti-government demonstrations in 2021, 2022 and 2024.
