Cuba Begins Power Restoration in Havana Following Major Grid Collapse
Cuba is making strides in restoring electricity to its capital, Havana, and several western provinces, following a significant partial collapse of its national power grid on Wednesday. This latest incident plunged millions into darkness, exacerbating an already dire energy crisis that has subjected residents to prolonged blackouts for months.
Critical Transmission Line Fails
According to top energy official Lazaro Guerra, the disruption occurred around 5 a.m. GMT (1000 GMT) when a crucial transmission line, linking Havana to the country's largest power plant in Matanzas, failed. However, dedicated workers promptly began the restoration process, with some areas seeing power return by mid-morning. "We now have a certain level of electricity back in Havana and also in the province of Mayabeque," Guerra stated, indicating ongoing efforts to boost generation capacity.
The outage impacted at least four western provinces, stretching from Pinar del Rio to Mayabeque. Havana's iconic oceanfront skyline, typically vibrant, was enveloped in darkness before dawn, with only a handful of hotels and hospitals operating on generators. The widespread disruption also led to intermittent cell phone service and non-functional street and stop lights, underscoring the severity of the infrastructure challenges.
A Persistent Struggle Against Darkness
This recent collapse is not an isolated event but rather a symptom of Cuba's deepening energy woes. Even prior to Wednesday's incident, citizens regularly endured daily blackouts, often lasting 20 hours or more. Havana, once more insulated from the worst of these outages, now routinely experiences 10 or more hours without electricity each day.
The island's reliance on aging, oil-fired power plants has proved increasingly unsustainable. A full-blown crisis emerged last year as vital oil imports from key allies like Venezuela, Russia, and Mexico significantly dwindled. Since then, Cuba's grid has suffered multiple collapses, which the government attributes to a confluence of factors: severe fuel shortages, decrepit and poorly maintained infrastructure, and damage inflicted by natural disasters such like Hurricane Melissa.
External Pressures and Economic Strain
Years of U.S. sanctions, coupled with a profound economic crisis, have severely hampered the Cuban government's ability to procure sufficient fuel. This has forced the nation into a precarious dependence on its allies. Shipping data and documents reviewed by Reuters reveal a stark reality: crude and fuel imports for the first ten months of the year plummeted by over a third compared to the previous year, a direct consequence of reduced supplies from Mexico and Venezuela. The long-term implications of these challenges continue to weigh heavily on the daily lives of Cubans.