Cuba suffers another widespread power outage, leaving millions in the dark as ministry works on fix

Cuba suffered a massive power outage Friday night affecting Havana and the country’s provinces that left millions in the dark.

Cuba’s Ministry of Energy and Mines said at around 8:15 p.m. local time an outage at the Diezmero substation on the outskirts of Havana had caused “a significant loss of generation in western Cuba and, with it, the failure of the National Electric System.”

The ministry said on its account on the social platform X that it is “working 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 was affected.

People in provinces as far away as Guantánamo, Artemisa, Santiago de Cuba, and Santa Clara reported experiencing blackouts with just flickers of light.

Earlier, the Electric Union, the state agency that regulates the sector, said in its daily report that peak-hour demand would be around 3,250 megawatts and the deficit would reach around 1,380 megawatts, meaning 42% of the national energy system would be shut down. This figure is not the highest in recent memory.

Cuba suffered widespread outages in its national energy system at the end of last year, leaving the island in the dark amid a serious economic crisis.

The 2024 blackout was considered to be Cuba’s worst in two years after Hurricane Ian made landfall as a Category 3 storm in 2022 and damaged power installations. 

Cuba’s power grid has been plagued by frequent outages, with more than half of the country experiencing power cuts during peak hours. The outages are primarily caused by fuel shortages and aging infrastructure. In many parts of the island, electricity is crucial for cooking and water pumping.

Authorities on the island have begun a program to install photovoltaic parks and promised that dozens of them will be ready this year. Blackouts previously prompted anti-government demonstrations in 2021, 2022, and 2024.