Cuba’s energy crisis deepened this week as a nationwide blackout left millions in the dark for nearly a full day, underscoring the fragility of the island’s electricity system and its broader economic struggles.
Electricity was restored to most of the country late Thursday, though several provinces remain partially without service. The outage, one of the most sweeping in recent months, disrupted daily life across Havana and beyond—halting commerce, straining families, and reigniting frustrations with the state-run grid.
Residents awoke Wednesday to find traffic lights dead, shops shuttered, and communication spotty. Many households left appliances and lights switched on in anticipation of the eventual reconnection, a tactic that turned neighborhoods into sudden beacons once power flickered back.
The government attributed the blackout to a chain reaction sparked by the shutdown of the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant after a system failure. Cuba’s electricity network, dependent on decades-old thermal plants and stopgap floating generators rented from abroad, has long been vulnerable to such collapses.
The blackout highlights the structural weakness of an energy sector caught between scarce fuel supplies, deteriorating infrastructure, and the weight of U.S. sanctions. While the country has pursued renewable alternatives—including dozens of new solar farms with Chinese support—these efforts have yet to offset the chronic instability.
For ordinary Cubans, the recurring outages represent more than inconvenience. Power cuts have become a flashpoint in the country’s ongoing economic turmoil, often sparking public anger and occasional protests in a nation where dissent is tightly controlled.
With inflation high, fuel imports constrained, and no swift path to modernizing the grid, many expect blackouts to remain a grim feature of daily life. The latest outage, while largely resolved, has left little doubt: Cuba’s energy crisis is far from over.
