Cuba Reestablishes Power, Restoring Much of Havana’s Grid

By late Sunday, Cuba had successfully reestablished its national electrical grid, bringing electricity back to much of Havana after a nearly two-day outage that left 10 million people without power.

The local electric company in Havana reported on Sunday night that nearly two-thirds of its customers had their power restored, with expectations for more improvements overnight.

Neighborhoods across the city erupted in cheers as lights flickered back on following two long days of darkness.

The grid failure occurred on Friday evening when a transmission line at a substation in Havana shorted out, triggering a widespread shutdown of power generation across the island.

Since then, most of Havana, a bustling metropolis and vital tourist destination, had been in darkness, causing significant disruptions to commerce and forcing most restaurants to close while streetlights went dark in a city of two million.

By late Sunday, the grid operator announced that the two largest oil-fired power plants in the country, Felton and Antonio Guiteras, were back in operation, representing a crucial step toward restoring power across the island.

Power also reached the Pinar del Río province—Cuba’s westernmost area and the last to be restored—just before sundown on Sunday, according to officials.

This grid failure signifies the fourth national blackout Cuba has experienced since October.

Last year, the aged oil-fired power plants faced an acute crisis as fuel imports from Venezuela, Russia, and Mexico dwindled.

Even prior to the grid failure on Friday, many areas on the island were subjected to daily blackouts lasting 20 hours or longer.

While progress was made in restoring electricity on Sunday, officials acknowledged they were generating only about one-third of the usual daily demand, leaving many residents still without power.

To ensure safe conditions for students, schools in Pinar del Río, Artemisa, and Mayabeque provinces in western Cuba will remain closed until Tuesday, as announced by the education ministry.

The Cuban government attributes the escalating energy crisis to a U.S. trade embargo from the Cold War era as well as recent sanctions imposed by former President Donald Trump, who reinforced restrictions on the communist government, pledging to maintain a robust policy against the longstanding adversary.

In an effort to mitigate reliance on outdated oil-fired power generation, the government is committed to developing large solar farms with assistance from China.