Some electricity was restored in Cuba, the government said Saturday, after the island nation's worst blackout in at l🦂east two years kicked in when a major power plant failed and l✱eft millions without electricity for two days.
Energy Minister Vicente de la O Levy said the country had 500 megawatts in its electrical grid early Saturday, compared to the three gigawatts that are normally generated. He posted on the social media platform X that “several substations in the wes🦄t now have electricity.”
O Levy also said two thermoelectric power plants are back and two more will resume their operations “in the ne𝓀xt few hours.”
Abou🌳t half of Cuba was plunged into darkness 🌊on Thursday evening, followed by the entire island on Friday morning after the plant failed.
Havana's electricity company said in a statement earlier Saturday that a part of its western system was disconnected “after the exit of one of the plants that was delivering service.” That issue has left some parts of the city in the dark 𝓀once again, with the total megawatts dropping from 500 to 370.
The streets of Cuba's capital, where 2 million people live, were quiet on Saturday, with few cars driving by after a night that wa𓆏s lit by candles and lamps. The impact of the blackout goes beyo🌟nd lighting, as services like water supply also depend on electricity to run pumps.
The blackout was considered to be Cuba's worst in two years, after a Category 3 hurricane damaged power iꦿnstallations and it took days for the government to fix them. This year, some homes have spent up to eight hours a day without electricity.
Besides the Antonio Guiteras plant, whose failure on Friday affected the entire national syste💙m, Cuba has several others and it wasn't immediately clear whether they remained functional.
There is no official estimate for when the blackout will end. Even in a country that is useꦗd to outages as part of a deepening economic crisis, Friday's collapse was﷽ massive.
The Cuban government has announced emerg🍎ency measures to slash electricity demand, including suspending school and university classes, shutting down some state-owned workpla꧂ces and cancelling nonessential services. Officials said that 1.64 gigawatts went offline during peak hours, about half the total demand at the time.
Local authorities said the outage, which started on a small scale Thursday, stemmed from increased demand from smaꦐll- and medium-sized companies and residential air conditioners. Later, ꦛthe blackout got worse due to breakdowns in old thermoelectric plants that haven't been properly maintained and the lack of fuel to operate some facilities.
Changes to electricity rates for small- and medium-sized companies, which have proliferated since they were first authorized by the communist government in 2021, are also being cons🀅idered.
