On Saturday, Cuba experienced a complete power grid collapse, marking the third blackout in March as the government struggles with outdated infrastructure and the impact of a U.S. oil blockade.
The Cuban Electricity Union, under the Ministry of Energy and Mines, reported the nationwide outage without immediately detailing its cause. Eventually, they attributed it to an unexpected failure at the Nuvitas thermoelectric power plant located in Camaguey state.
According to a report from the Ministry, this failure triggered a cascading effect on the operating machines. To manage the situation, they activated “micro-islands” of power generation to supply essential services like hospitals and water systems.
Officials are currently working on restoring power.
In recent years, power outages have become increasingly common, largely tied to the breakdown of aging infrastructure, both national and regional. Fuel shortages have further complicated matters, leading to outages that can last up to 12 hours daily, along with ongoing system instability.
The last major blackout hit the country on Monday, making Saturday’s incident the second such occurrence in a week and the third this month.
These outages have drastically affected daily life—people are facing reduced work hours, challenges in cooking, and food spoilage due to the loss of refrigeration. In some instances, hospitals have even had to cancel surgeries.
President Miguel Diaz-Canel noted that Cuba hasn’t received any oil from foreign suppliers for three months, while the country manages to produce only 40% of its fuel needs to sustain its economy.
The state of Cuba’s power grid has significantly worsened over the years.
Additionally, the government has pointed to the U.S. energy blockade as a contributing factor to the blackouts. Former President Donald Trump threatened tariffs on nations that supply oil to Cuba, demanding political reforms in exchange for lifting sanctions.
Trump also suggested the idea of a “friendly takeover of Cuba.”
Furthermore, dwindling oil supplies are linked to the ousting of Venezuela’s leader, which halted crucial oil shipments from a longtime ally of Cuba.
For months, Trump has implied that Cuba’s government could be on the brink of collapse. Following the last blackout event, he remarked that he anticipated having the “honor of occupying Cuba.”
