Cuba's Electrical Grid Suffers Partial Collapse, Plunging Havana and Western Provinces into Darkness
Early on Wednesday, Cuba's capital, Havana, along with a significant portion of its western region, experienced a widespread blackout after the nation's already fragile electrical grid endured a partial collapse. This incident, officially confirmed by state-run media reporter Lazaro Manuel Alonso, left four of Cuba's westernmost provinces—stretching from Pinar del Rio to Mayabeque—completely without electricity.
The exact cause of this latest grid failure was not immediately apparent. Before dawn, a Reuters witness observed that Havana's familiar skyline was predominantly dark, with only critical facilities like hospitals and select tourist hotels managing to maintain power, highlighting the severity of the situation across the city.
Underlying Energy Crisis and Persistent Blackouts
This recent collapse underscores a deeper, ongoing energy crisis that has afflicted the Caribbean island nation for an extended period. Cuba's power infrastructure heavily relies on obsolete, oil-fired plants, which have proven increasingly incapable of consistently meeting the country's energy demands. The situation escalated dramatically last year when the grid faced a full-blown crisis, largely due to a sharp reduction in essential oil imports from key allies such as Venezuela, Russia, and Mexico.
Since that major crisis, Cuba's electrical grid has experienced numerous partial or total collapses. The consequence for citizens across the island has been severe: many now routinely face daily blackouts that can last 20 hours or even longer. Even residents of Havana, who were historically more shielded from the worst of these outages, now regularly contend with 10 hours or more of electricity deprivation each day.
Factors Contributing to Cuba's Power Woes
The Cuban government attributes these chronic power issues to a combination of factors, including persistent fuel shortages, severely decrepit infrastructure, and damage sustained from natural disasters like Hurricane Melissa. Beyond internal challenges, external pressures also play a significant role.
For years, U.S. sanctions coupled with a profound economic crisis have severely limited the government's capacity to purchase sufficient fuel on the international market. This has led to an increasing and often precarious dependence on its remaining international allies for energy supplies. Compounding the problem, shipping data and documents reviewed by Reuters indicate that Cuba's imports of crude oil and fuel in the first ten months of 2025 saw a dramatic reduction of more than a third compared to the same period in 2024, primarily because crucial suppliers like Mexico and Venezuela significantly cut back their deliveries. This latest partial grid collapse serves as a stark reminder of the urgent and complex challenges Cuba faces in ensuring a stable power supply for its population.