Cuba remained largely without power on Saturday morning after the island’s grid collapsed the night before, knocking out electricity for 10 million people and raising fresh questions about the viability of its antiquated generating system.
At sunrise, the island’s grid operator, UNE, said it was generating only a trickle of electricity—around 225 MW, or less than 10% of total demand—enough to cover some vital services like hospitals, water supply, and food production centers.
Officials said they had begun the process of firing up the country’s decades-old generation plants, but gave no timeline for restoring service.
Cuba’s grid failed Friday evening around 8:15 p.m. (0015 GMT) after an aging component of a transmission line at a substation in Havana shorted, beginning a chain reaction that completely shut down power generation across the island, UNE officials said.
The grid collapse follows a string of nationwide blackouts late last year that plunged Cuba’s frail power-generating system into near-total disarray, stressed by fuel shortages, natural disasters, and economic crisis.
Most Cubans outside the capital, Havana, have already been living for months with rolling blackouts that peaked at 20 hours a day in recent weeks.
Havana was still largely without electricity on Saturday morning. Light traffic navigated intersections with no functioning stoplights, and cellular internet was weak or non-existent in some areas.
Moreover, severe shortages of food, medicine, and water have made life increasingly unbearable for many Cubans, and people have been fleeing the island in record-breaking numbers in recent years.
Cuba blames its economic woes on a Cold War-era U.S. trade embargo, a web of laws and regulations that complicate financial transactions and the acquisition of essentials like fuel and spare parts.
A grid official on Saturday morning said Cuba had been unable to update antiquated transmission and generation components because of the restrictions.
U.S. President Donald Trump recently tightened sanctions on the island’s communist-run government, vowing to restore a “tough” policy toward the long-time U.S. foe.
