A blackout left millions without power in Havana and the rest of western Cuba on Wednesday in the latest outage on an island struggling with dwindling oil reserves and a crumbling electric grid.
State radio station Radio Rebelde quoted an energy official as saying it could take at least 72 hours to restore operations at Cuba’s largest thermoelectric power plants, where the outage was halted.
The outage affected people from the western town of Pinar del Rio to the central town of Camagüey, the government’s power utility said on social forum X.
Energy and Mines Minister Vicente de la O Levy wrote in X late Wednesday that the government was energizing critical infrastructure in the affected area as two power plants came online. Such infrastructure includes hospitals and medical clinics.
“We are working to restore the national power system amid a complex energy situation,” he wrote earlier in X.
The US embassy warned people to “be prepared for significant disruptions” and to conserve fuel, water, food and mobile phone batteries. “Cuba’s national electricity grid is highly unreliable, and unscheduled and unscheduled power outages are prolonged and a daily occurrence across the country, including in Havana,” it said in X.
By midday, crews had restored power to 2.5 percent of Havana, or about 21,100 customers, the government said, adding that efforts are gradual and dependent on what conditions in the system allow. It had not provided updated numbers as of late Wednesday night.
“We trust the experience and effort of electrical workers to overcome this situation in a short time,” Prime Minister Manuel Marrero wrote in Cruz X.
As night fell, people across Havana lingered on doorsteps and used wood or charcoal to make “caldosas,” a popular soup shared among neighbors who contributed items including vegetables, chicken, and meat. A group of musicians played late into the night along the city’s famous sea wall. Others played dominoes with a rechargeable lightbulb.
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“With power cuts, the only thing we young people have to distract ourselves,” said Jefferson Silvera.
Daily, long layovers are so common in Cuba that 66-year-old Genoveva Torres waited to return at night as usual to cook dinner. She was distraught when told about the massive darkness.
“My God, when?” she exclaimed. “Then we will not eat, we must eat bread again.”
State media reported that the shutdown was caused by a leak in the boiler of the Antonio Guiterres thermoelectric power plant east of Havana.
According to Radio Rebelde plant technical director Roman Pérez Castaneda, crews must first detect the fault before correcting it and restarting the unit.
According to Radio Rebelde, Pérez Castaneda said that a pipe burst in the boiler, leaking water and the subsequent fire was extinguished without major damage.
The breakdown caught 63-year-old Odalis Sanchez on the street with her grandson. She was unable to walk from a recent operation, so she called someone to give her a ride home.
Around 200 people were waiting at the bus stop near her, but the buses were not running due to lack of fuel, so she tried to get a ride by any means available, including hitchhiking.
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“I’ve got to go home to see what I can do,” Sanchez said. “Without power, you can’t do anything. My grandson is also studying and I have to feed him. Public transport is not helping.”
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The outage is the second to affect western Cuba in three months.
The outage lasted about 12 hours in early December. Officials said a fault in the transmission line connecting the two power plants caused an overload and led to the collapse of the western sector of the power system.
Officials noted that some thermoelectric plants have been operating for over 30 years and receive little maintenance given the high cost. Officials say US sanctions prevent the government from buying new equipment and specialized parts.
Cuba has been struggling with dwindling oil reserves since the US attacked Venezuela in early January, halting crucial petroleum shipments from the South American country. Later that month, US President Donald Trump threatened to impose tariffs on any country that sells or supplies oil to Cuba.
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Ernesto Couto Martínez, 76, was trying to find a ride home and said he faced the latest stop “with the enthusiasm that all Cubans have.”
“We have to keep fighting. There is no other way,” he said. “We must move forward, blockade or no blockade.”
Last month, the Cuban government implemented strict energy-saving measures and warned that nine airports would not have jet fuel until mid-March.
Before the attack on Venezuela, the island was already struggling with a crumbling electric grid, production shortfalls and fuel supply disruptions.
(With FRANCE 24 AFP)
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