Cuba Works to Restore Power After New Blackout
Officials said one unit at a thermoelectric plant had been brought back online, helping to stabilize parts of the grid.
Authorities in Cuba scrambled to restore electricity across the island on Monday after the country suffered a second nationwide blackout in under a week, a failure officials blame on aging infrastructure and a US oil blockade that has tightened fuel supplies.
While sections of Havana reported the return of power, other neighborhoods remained without electricity a day after the energy ministry said the nation’s electrical system experienced a “total disconnection” in the country of nearly 10 million residents.
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Energy and Mining Minister Vicente de la O Levy reported on X that a gas-fired station near Havana and another unit at the Varadero beach resort had resumed generation, and that a central Cuban hydroelectric plant was also producing electricity again.
Officials said one unit at a thermoelectric plant had been brought back online, helping to stabilize parts of the grid.
Authorities say the blackouts have worsened since Venezuela’s socialist leader Nicolas Maduro was captured in a US military operation in January, a development that disrupted Cuba’s main regional ally and oil supplier.
US President Donald Trump has threatened tariffs on countries that continue to sell oil to Cuba, further complicating the island’s fuel access.
Cuban officials say no oil shipments have arrived since 9 January, a stoppage that has hit the power sector hard and forced airlines to cut routes to the island — a fresh blow to a tourism industry that remains a key source of foreign revenue.
According to the government, the most recent blackout began with an outage at one of the country’s eight thermoelectric plants; that failure cascaded through the grid and triggered widespread disconnections.
The energy crisis, alongside recurring shortages of food, medicine and other essentials, has fed public frustration. Over the weekend, protesters vandalized a provincial office of the Cuban Communist Party in a rare episode of violence.
The latest nationwide outage coincided with the arrival this week of an international aid convoy bringing urgently needed medical supplies, food, water and solar panels to the Caribbean nation.