File: A person drives his automotive throughout a blackout in Cienfuegos, Cuba, on March 20, 2025.
Yamil Lage | Afp | Getty Images
Communist Cuba’s nationwide energy grid collapsed for the fourth time in lower than a 12 months on Wednesday morningcausing a nationwide blackout, authorities mentioned.
“There has been a total disconnection of the Electric System,” the Energy Ministryand National Electric Union mentioned.
The grid operator mentioned the grid collapsed at 9:14 a.m. (13:14 GMT) on the Caribbean island.
The ministry mentioned causes are being investigated and the restoration course of has already begun.
Even earlier than Wednesday’s grid collapse, leaving 10 million residents with out energy, many throughout the island had already been experiencing each day blackouts of 16 hours or extra.
The grid failure follows a string of nationwide blackouts since late final 12 months that plunged Cuba’s frail and antiquated energy era system into near-total disarray.
The nation has additionally being going through gas, meals and different shortages amid its worst financial disaster in a long time.
“This is crazy for everything,” Raúl Ernesto Gutierrez mentioned in Havana.
Gutierrez, who mentioned he was visiting the capital, mentioned that again dwelling in the countryside, “we will have to cook with charcoal, with firewood. It’s stressful and also frustrating.”
Havana state employee Danai Hernandez, mentioned she was on the best way dwelling from work which had simply shut down.
“I’m going home to organize everything in the household and … now we have to wait. We don’t have any other choice,” she mentioned, visibly upset.
Cuba’s oil-fired energy vegetation, already out of date and struggling to maintain the lights on, reached a full disaster final 12 months as oil imports from Venezuela, Russia and Mexico dwindled.