Cuba was plunged into a nationwide blackout on Friday after the island’s largest power plant failed, the energy ministry said, following weeks of power outages in the economically devastated country.
Lazaro Guerra, director general of electricity at the Ministry of Energy and Mines, told state television that “the system across the country was left without electricity” after the unexpected shutdown of the Antonio Guiteras power plant.
When the power plant shut down, “the system collapsed,” he said, adding that the government was working to restore service as quickly as possible to the island’s 11 million people.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero declared an “energy emergency” after weeks of disruption that left some provinces without power for up to 20 hours a day.
He suspended all non-essential public sector activities to give priority to power supply to households.
President Miguel Diaz-Canel said on social media platform X on Friday that the government “will not rest” until the lights are back on and the energy crisis is solved.
Worst crisis in 30 years
He blamed the situation on Cuba’s difficulties in obtaining fuel for its power plants, which he attributed to the tightening of the six-decade-long US trade embargo under former President Donald Trump.
Cuba is suffering its worst economic crisis since the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, with skyrocketing inflation and shortages of food, medicine, fuel and even water.
While officials mainly blame US sanctions, the island is still feeling the aftershocks of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has badly hit tourism.
The island’s electricity is generated by eight old thermal power plants, some of which are broken or under maintenance, as well as seven floating plants leased from Turkish companies and a fleet of generators.
In 2022, the island suffered daily hours-long power outages for several months, culminating in a nationwide blackout caused by Hurricane Ian on September 27 of that year.
The situation eased in 2023 but in March this year, maintenance work at the Antonio Guiteras plant, located about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the capital, caused power cuts again.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)