Cuba’s electricity grid was knocked out of service on Friday after one of the island’s main power plants failed, the Energy Ministry announced.
The massive outage left millions of Cubans without power and prompted the government to implement emergency measures to reduce demand, including suspending classes, closing some state-owned workplaces and removing non-essential services.
The government announced that one of the country’s main thermoelectric plants, La Antonio Guiteras, ceased operations around 11 a.m. local time, with authorities saying it was only temporarily out of service.
Cuban officials said the outage, which began Thursday evening, resulted in 1.64 gigawatts being cut during early evening peak hours, about half of total demand at the time.
The government was still working to restore service Friday afternoon. “From the highest levels of the state we are working to resolve this energy contingency as quickly as possible,” Prime Minister Manuel Marrero said on social media. “We will not rest until service is restored.”
Earlier in the day, Marrero said in a special speech on national television that the government had “interrupted economic activities to guarantee the energy supply of the population.”
During his speech, Marrero was accompanied by Alfredo López, head of the public company UNE, who said that the outage was due to increased demand from small and medium-sized businesses and air conditioners in residences, as well as ‘to breakdowns of old thermoelectric systems. poorly maintained factories and a lack of fuel to operate certain facilities.
Ramón Espinosa / AP
The Department of Energy posted on social media around 4 p.m. Eastern Time that it was still reviewing all thermoelectric plants, fuel availability and the status of the power grid.
“There is no set timetable for the full restoration of electricity, but we are working to reconnect the electricity system as soon as possible,” a ministry official said in a video posted on social media.
Changes to electricity rates for small and medium-sized businesses, which have mushroomed since they were first authorized by the communist government in 2021, are also being considered, Marrero said.
Marrero sought to allay public concerns about the outage, citing an expected influx of fuel from Cuba’s state oil company.
Even in a country accustomed to frequent outages amid a deepening economic crisis, the scale of Thursday night’s outage left millions of Cubans on edge. Residents closed their doors and windows, which they usually left open at night, and candles or lanterns were visible inside the houses.
