“Since midday on Friday, October 18, Cuba has been in [total electrical] blackout due to the unexpected disconnection of the Antonio Guiteras Thermoelectric Plant in Matanzas, which generates more than 200 MW and is one of the main supports of the island’s electrical energy system.”[1]
In addition, “Unit 1 of the Santa Cruz del Norte Thermoelectric Plant, Unit 2 of Felton, and Units 3 and 6 of Renté are in breakdown, while Unit 2 of Santa Cruz del Norte, Unit 4 of Cienfuegos, and Unit 5 of Renté are undergoing maintenance. In total, these amount to 439 MW of ungenerated power.”
Also out of service are “54 distributed generation plants . . . due to lack of fuel, a situation that also keeps the boats of the Turkish company Karadeniz Holding out of operation, located in Mariel, Santiago de Cuba, Regla and the one connected to the Melones substation, the latter two in Havana Bay.
Soon thereafter, Cuba’s President “Miguel Díaz-Canel said that “from the country’s leadership we are devoting absolute priority to the attention and solution of this energy contingency of high sensitivity for the nation. There will be no rest until its restoration.”
“This situation will aggravate the critical situation facing Cubans, after blackouts occurred last Thursday due to a lack of generation capacity 24 hours a day, without being able to restore service during the early morning.”
In response, “the Government announced the general closure of workplaces it considered dispensable, the suspension of classes in schools until Monday, the cancellation of cultural activities, among other measures.”
Cubans already “have endured power cuts that extend for four or five hours a day in the capital Havana and most of the day in the rest of the island. The Communist country faces one of its worst-ever economic and energy crises. Deteriorating and obsolete infrastructure and inadequate fuel make it impossible to generate enough electricity.”
Then “this total blackout “came hours after Prime Minister Manuel Marrero said that fuel shortages and maintenance problems at the country’s power grid and rising electricity demand required the government to reduce electricity consumption with harsh measures.”
“The energy crisis and a deep economic contraction in recent years has fueled social unrest and mass migration to the U.S. Cubans stand in line for hours to buy basic goods such as chicken or bread or to take a bus.”
The Cuban Human Rights Observatory, a Spain-based advocacy group, says the measures [restricting use of electricity] are a tacit admission of a failure in the management of the country. The crisis goes far beyond an electricity shortage—which leaves Cubans with blackouts for almost 20 hours a day. It also includes a lack of food, running water and medicines.”
William Leogrande, a Cuba specialist at American University, said “The economic consequences are disastrous, because you shut down domestic production” of a whole variety of goods. The energy crisis also presents a political risk for the Communist government. It has confronted protests in the past few years from people who have taken to the streets of this tropical nation to escape hot apartments, including nationwide demonstrations in July 2021. The blackouts have caused more local unrest than just about any other shortage.”
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[1] Cuba in darkness after the sudden disconnection of the Antonio Guiteras Thermoelectric Plant, Diario de Cuba (Nov. 19, 2024); Perez, Cuba Suffers Mass Blackout as Energy Crisis Deepens, W.S.J. (Nov. 18, 2024); Torres & Delgado, As Cuba’s nationwide blackout continues, a look at why the electrical grid collapsed, Miami Herald (Nov. 18, 2024); Sheridan, Cuban electrical collapse causes island-wide blackout, paralyzes economy, Wash. Post (Nov. 18, 2024);Robles, Power Outage Plunges All of Cuba Into Darkness, N,Y. Times (Nov. 18, 2024).
