By Dave Sherwood and Marianna Parraga
HAVANA (Reuters) -Cuba restored a trickle of energy to its grid by mid-evening on Friday, officers stated, hours after the island plunged into a national blackout following the collapse of one in every of its main energy vegetation.
The overwhelming majority of the nation’s 10 million residents have been nonetheless at midnight on Friday night time, however scattered pockets of the capital Havana, together with a number of the metropolis’s main hospitals, noticed lights flicker again on shortly after darkish.
Grid operator UNE stated it hoped to restart not less than 5 of its oil-fired era vegetation in a single day, offering sufficient electrical energy, it stated, to start returning energy to broader areas of the nation.
The Communist-run authorities closed colleges and non-essential trade early on Friday and despatched most state employees house in a last-ditch effort to maintain the lights on after weeks of extreme energy shortages. Leisure and cultural actions, together with night time golf equipment, have been additionally ordered closed.
However shortly earlier than noon, the Antonio Guiteras energy plant, the nation’s largest and most effective, went offline, prompting a complete grid failure and immediately leaving your complete island with out energy.
Officers stated late on Friday they have been working to repair the issue that had led the oil-fired plant to fail. They didn’t specify the reason for its collapse.
The blackout marks a brand new low level on an island the place life has grow to be more and more insufferable, with residents affected by shortages of meals, gasoline, water and drugs.
Nearly all commerce in Havana floor to a halt on Friday. Many residents sat sweating on doorsteps. Vacationers hunkered down in frustration. By dusk, the town was nearly utterly enveloped in darkness.
“We went to a restaurant and they had no food because there was no power, now we are also without internet,” said Brazilian tourist Carlos Roberto Julio, who had recently arrived in Havana. “In two days, we have already had several problems.”
Prime Minister Manuel Marrero this week blamed worsening blackouts in the course of the previous a number of weeks on an ideal storm well-known to most Cubans – deteriorating infrastructure, gasoline shortages and rising demand.
“The fuel shortage is the biggest factor,” Marrero stated in a televised message to the nation.
Robust winds that started with Hurricane Milton final week have crippled the island’s potential to ship scarce gasoline from boats offshore to its energy vegetation, officers stated.
REDUCED FUEL
Cuba’s authorities additionally blames the U.S. commerce embargo, in addition to sanctions beneath then-President Donald Trump, for difficulties in buying gasoline and spare components to function its oil-fired vegetation.
“The complex scenario is caused primarily by the intensification of the economic war and financial and energy persecution of the United States,” Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel stated on X on Thursday.
A White Home Nationwide Safety Council spokesperson stated, “The United States is not to blame for today’s blackout on the island, or the overall energy situation in Cuba.”
A State Division official stated late on Friday that Washington was intently monitoring the potential humanitarian impression of the blackout however that the Cuban authorities had not requested help.
For a lot of Cubans, far faraway from politics and accustomed to common energy outages, the nationwide blackout was nothing greater than a traditional Friday night time.
Carlos Manuel Pedre stated he had defaulted to easy pleasures to cross the time.
“In the times we’re living in, with everything happening in our country, the most logical entertainment is dominoes,” he stated as he performed the favored recreation with mates. “We’re in total crisis.”
Whereas demand for electrical energy has grown lately alongside Cuba’s fledgling non-public sector, gasoline provide has fallen sharply.
Cuba’s largest oil provider, Venezuela, has lowered shipments to the island to a mean of 32,600 barrels per day within the first 9 months of the yr, barely half the 60,000 bpd despatched in the identical interval of 2023, in response to vessel-monitoring information and inner transport paperwork from Venezuela’s state firm PDVSA.
PDVSA, whose refining infrastructure can be ailing, has this yr tried to keep away from a brand new wave of gasoline shortage at house, leaving smaller volumes accessible for export to allied nations like Cuba.
Russia and Mexico, which up to now have despatched gasoline to Cuba, have additionally enormously lowered shipments.
The shortfalls have left Cuba to fend for itself on the far costlier spot market at a time when its authorities is near-bankrupt.
