Cuba’s national power grid crashed Friday following the failure of one of the island’s main power plants, according to the country’s Energy Ministry, leaving the entire nation in the dark.
Earlier in the day, the communist administration had closed schools, shut down non-essential industries and sent most state employees home in a last-ditch effort to save electricity for residential areas.
However, just before noon, the Antonio Guiteras power plant, Cuba’s largest and most efficient, blacked out, causing a complete grid outage and plunging nearly 10 million people into a blackout.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel release a statement on X, by saying that, “We will not stop until power is restored.”
The crisis had already led officials to suspend all non-essential government services, including schools, universities, and recreational and cultural activities in order to safeguard essential resources.
Even so, the government announced that only essential workers in the state-run food and health sectors will have to report to work on Friday.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero attributed the last few weeks of blackouts to a “perfect storm” that is all too familiar to most Cubans: deteriorating infrastructure, fuel shortages and rising demand.
“The fuel shortage is the most significant factor,” Marrero said in a televised address postponed for several hours due to technical issues.
Officials explained that strong winds and rough seas, which began with Hurricane Milton last week, have severely hampered the island’s ability to transport scarce fuel from offshore ships to power plants.
In addition, the Cuban government has always blamed the Cold War-era U.S. embargo, combined with the additional sanctions instituted by former President Donald Trump, for the difficulties in obtaining fuel and spare parts needed to operate its oil-fired power plants.
The government reported that the island’s two largest power plants, the Felton and the Antonio Guiteras, are both now inactive and are in need of urgent maintenance as part of a four-year plan to overhaul Cuba’s aging infrastructure.
To compensate for the energy shortage, Marrero announced that Cuba’s fast-growing private companies, which have contributed to the increased demand, will have to pay higher energy rates.
