Some power has returned to Cuba, the government said Saturday, after the worst blackout in at least two years left millions without power for two days.
Energy Minister Vicente de la O Levy said the country had 500 megawatts on its electricity grid as of early Saturday, compared to the 3 gigawatts normally produced. He wrote on social media X that “many stations in the west have electricity.”
O Levy also said that two thermoelectric power plants have returned and two others will resume their operations “in the next few hours.”
Almost half of Cuba plunged into darkness on Thursday evening, followed by the rest of the island on Friday morning after a factory failure.
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The Havana-based power company said in a statement early Saturday that part of its western system was cut off “after one of the plants that supplied the services went out.” That issue has left other parts of the city in the dark as well, as the total megawatts dropped from 500 to 370.
The streets of Cuba’s capital, home to two million people, were quiet on Saturday, with few cars passing after a night lit by candles and lanterns. The impact of blackouts goes beyond lighting, as services such as water supply also depend on electricity to run pumps.
A person drives a vintage American car past a floating generator that has been out of power for days in Havana, Cuba, on Friday, Oct. 18, 2024.
Ramon Espinosa / The Associated Press
The blackout was considered Cuba’s worst in two years, after a Category 3 hurricane damaged the power supply and took days for the government to repair. This year, some households have spent 8 hours a day without electricity.
Apart from the Antonio Guiteras plant, whose failure on Friday affected the entire national system, Cuba has a few others and it was not immediately clear if they were always operational.
There is no official estimate of when the blackout will end. Even in a country accustomed to shutdowns as part of a severe economic crisis, Friday’s fall was massive.
The Cuban government has announced emergency measures to reduce electricity demand, including suspending classes at schools and universities, closing some government facilities and canceling non-essential services. Officials said 1.64 gigawatts did not go online during peak hours, about half of the total demand at that time.
A general view of the city during a nationwide blackout caused by a grid failure in Havana, taken on October 18, 2024. The breakdown of technology, fuel shortages and high demand have caused the country’s power plants to fail frequently, forcing the government to emergency power and take measures such as and closing schools and factories.
Yamil Lage / AFP via Getty Images
Local authorities said the outages, which began on a small scale on Thursday, were due to increased demand from small and medium-sized companies and residential air conditioners. Later, blackouts worsened due to the deterioration of poorly maintained thermal power plants and the lack of fuel to power other facilities.
Changes in electricity rates for small and medium-sized companies, which have increased since they were first approved by the Communist government in 2021, are also being considered.
© 2024 The Canadian Press
