Power was restored to the entirety of Cuba on Thursday, the national electricity company said, after an island-wide blackout lasted nearly 24 hours — the fifth in under a year.
After initially announcing that power was restored in 11 of the country’s 15 provinces on Thursday morning, the government stated that the grid was fully operational by midday.
“The National Electric System (SEN) has now been restored,” the energy ministry announced on X.
The outage surprised Cubans on Wednesday morning, after many had already left for work or to take their children to school.
Maria Beltran, a 58-year-old social worker who lives in a densely populated neighbourhood of western Havana, told AFP that power returned to her home at dawn.
“We realised it because we left all the lights on to know. It’s not easy; yesterday we stayed at home, unable to go out.”
The country, with a population of nearly 10 million, has been plagued by hours-long daily blackouts in recent years, as well as recurring electricity system breakdowns and an acute shortage of fuel to power generators.
These general outages paralyse commercial activities as the communist island battles its worst economic crisis in decades.
The country relies on eight outdated thermoelectric plants, most of them online since the 1980s and 90s and prone to breakdowns.
Under a US trade embargo since the 1960s, the country has also turned to floating electric plants rented from Turkish companies, and generators fueled by crude oil that Cuba is struggling to pay for.
The Ministry of Energy said a false overheating signal caused the Antonio Guiteras plant in central Cuba to go offline on Wednesday, triggering a national system collapse.
With high summer temperatures boosting energy consumption, planned electricity cuts nationwide averaged 15 hours per day in August and 16 hours in July.
The recent installation of 30 solar energy parks out of the 52 planned for this year, with assistance from China, has not alleviated the situation.
The blackouts have led to rare anti-government protests as Cubans also battle high inflation, shortages of fuel, medicine and food, and an average monthly salary of less than $20 at the rate offered on the informal market, where most buy their supplies.
