Power slowly restored across Cuba after nationwide blackout

Power is gradually being restored in parts of Havana after a nationwide blackout left millions without electricity. The outage, caused by a grid collapse on Friday evening, affected around 10 million people, with some areas seeing progress while large portions of Cuba remain in the dark.

Cuba is gradually recovering from a nationwide blackout that left millions without power, with some areas of Havana seeing electricity return. The outage, which affected around 10 million people, was caused by a grid collapse on Friday evening, triggering widespread power failures across the island.

By Sunday morning, pockets of Havana began to flicker back to life, but large parts of the capital and the rest of Cuba remained without power. The Cuban electric company reported that approximately 19% of Havana’s customers had regained electricity, though officials have not provided an official timeline for when full power will be restored.

The Cuban Ministry of Energy and Mining confirmed that the country's largest power plant had been restarted, marking a crucial step towards restoring power to the eastern provinces. Lázaro Guerra, General Director of Electricity at the Cuban Ministry of Energy and Mining, shared an update on the situation: “A few generating units are in the process of starting up, and electricity coverage across the country should continue improving. The situation now is different from last night. We now have a nationally interconnected system from Mariel, in the west, to Guantánamo, in the far east. This is a more positive condition. Thermal generation units have already been incorporated, and several more units are being restarted.”

Despite the progress in restoring power, many businesses in Havana continue to rely on backup generators, although some have resumed normal operations as electricity returns to select areas.

Restaurant manager Nicky Vera mentioned the improvements, saying, “They say the system is slowly recovering. It’s real—we have a colleague who just arrived, and at her house, electricity has been restored. The system seems to be stabilizing in her area. We hope that little by little, power will return to all municipalities.”

The blackout began on Friday evening after a transmission line failure at a substation in Havana, which triggered a chain reaction that shut down power generation across the island.

The Cuban government has blamed the worsening energy crisis on the long-standing U.S. trade embargo, as well as the additional sanctions imposed by former U.S. President Donald Trump. These sanctions have further tightened economic restrictions on the island, deepening Cuba’s energy woes.

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