HAVANA — Cuba suffered a power outage on Friday, affecting the island’s entire population of 10 million after one of its main power plants failed, the country’s Energy Ministry said.
Authorities announced Friday night that power had been restored to about 20,000 residents of the capital, Havana, which has a population of 2 million.
Power outages have been a chronic problem in Cuba for years and have worsened in recent months. But the situation has been so critical over the past three days that the government has taken measures to keep the lights on.
On Thursday night, it announced that schools would close and that most state workers would stay home Friday to conserve energy. But that wasn’t enough, and at 11 a.m. Friday morning, Antonio Guiteras’s largest power plant, the thermoelectric plant, went offline, causing a grid failure.
The communist country’s aging and dilapidated infrastructure is prone to frequent power outages due to maintenance issues and fuel shortages. In some provinces outside Havana, many people are experiencing power outages that can last up to 20 hours.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel wrote on X that they are giving “absolute priority” to solving the problem and that “there will be no rest” until the power comes back on.
Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero on Thursday blamed the ongoing power outages on deteriorating infrastructure, fuel shortages and rising demand from the population.
While demand for electricity has increased, oil supplies are severely limited. Cuba’s ally and main oil supplier, Venezuela, has reduced the amount of shipments it sends to the island. Oil shipments from other countries, such as Russia and Mexico, have also been greatly reduced.
Authorities said they did not know how long it would take to restore power to the entire island.
Although Cubans are used to power outages, the incident has shocked many. People walking through a Havana neighborhood expressed concern about the situation, with one resident saying it felt like the country had hit “rock bottom.”
“This is unbelievable,” said one Havana resident who declined to give his name. “I don’t see a solution to this problem.”
A woman in an Old Havana neighborhood said she feared the situation would get worse. “I’m really worried that we may not have hit bottom of this electricity crisis,” she told NBC News.
The Cuban government has long blamed the decades-long U.S. embargo for many of the island’s economic shortcomings, including difficulties obtaining fuel and spare parts for its power plants. Donald Trump increased sanctions when he was president, and the pandemic has had a devastating impact on the island’s tourism industry, one of the most lucrative sources of income for the state-dominated economy.
The economic crisis has already made life difficult for the average Cuban, with shortages of food, medicine and fuel.
Carmen Sesin reported from Miami and Orlando Matos from Havana.