Cuba's power grid collapsed on Saturday, leaving the country without electricity for the third time in March as the government struggles with ageing infrastructure and a US-imposed oil blockade. The Cuban Electric Union, part of the Ministry of Energy and Mines, announced a total blackout across the island, initially without giving a cause.
Later, the ministry said the blackout was triggered by an unexpected failure of a generating unit at the Nuevitas thermoelectric plant in Camagüey province. This caused a cascading effect on other machines online, leading to a system-wide collapse. Authorities activated 'micro-islands' of generating units to power vital centres, hospitals and water systems.
Power outages have become common in the past two years due to breakdowns in the ageing grid, compounded by daily blackouts of up to 12 hours caused by fuel shortages. Saturday's outage was the second in a week and the third in March, severely disrupting daily life: reducing working hours, hindering cooking and food refrigeration, and forcing hospitals to cancel some surgeries.
President Miguel Díaz-Canel said Cuba has not received oil from foreign suppliers for three months. The country produces barely 40% of the fuel it needs. The government blames the outages on a US energy blockade, after President Donald Trump warned of tariffs on any country selling oil to Cuba. Trump demands the release of political prisoners and political and economic liberalisation in return for lifting sanctions, and has raised the possibility of a 'friendly takeover' of Cuba.
The removal of Venezuela's leader has also halted critical petroleum shipments from that former ally. Trump has suggested Cuba's government is on the verge of collapse, and after a previous blackout, he said he believed he would soon have 'the honour of taking Cuba'.
