Cuba plunges into darkness again due to energy crisis

Cuba's electricity system was already in a fragile state due to a severe shortage of fuel and spare parts. In the meantime, the entire country has been plunged into darkness due to a terrible disaster in the national grid.

Cuba's state-owned electricity company 'Union Electrica' (UNE) announced the disaster in an announcement made on social media X late Sunday (August 2). However, there were no immediate details about the exact cause of the disaster, how widespread its impact would be or when the power supply would be normalized.

Before the nationwide disaster, Havana's electricity company had said that the power outages were due to planned load shedding due to transformer damage, circuit faults and production shortages.

According to Reuters, many municipalities, including Guanabacoa, Habana del Este, La Lisa and Mariano, had reported numerous unresolved power outages early Sunday.

In the event of a complete power outage, authorities usually first set up small, isolated power networks to supply power to hospitals, water supplies and food storage facilities. Then, they gradually try to reconnect larger power plants to the main line.

Frequent nationwide blackouts

Sunday's incident is the latest in a string of blackouts across the country this year. The previous three blackouts in just nine days in July, including two in the same week, left the entire country without power. One of those outages left about 10 million people in the dark. Even after the service network was restored, authorities struggled to restore power, unable to generate enough electricity to meet demand.

Cuba's power system is in dire straits due to a shortage of fuel and parts and frequent breakdowns at aging thermoelectric plants. Some of the country's power plants are more than 30 years old and have received little maintenance.

The Cuban government blames the United States

The Cuban government accuses Washington of being responsible for the crisis. The United States has imposed strict restrictions on oil supplies to Cuba, as well as on access to financing and equipment. After the United States kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on January 3, US President Donald Trump imposed an oil embargo on Cuba, depriving Cuba of one of its main sources of energy.

Venezuela has long been Cuba's main oil supplier. But under increasing pressure from Washington, oil imports from Mexico have also stopped. On the other hand, some analysts say decades of underinvestment and mismanagement in the electricity sector are largely to blame for the severe crisis.

The prolonged power outage has severely disrupted the country's transport system, water supply, telecommunications and medical services. In this scorching summer heat, ordinary people are facing extreme hardships, from storing food, cooking to sleeping at night.

Source: Al Jazeera, Reuters