All of Cuba was plunged into darkness Friday after the island’s main power plant suddenly shut down.
The country’s Antonio Guiteras power plant witnessed an unexpected outage, causing the National Electricity System to be “completely disconnected at 11 a.m.,” Cuba’s Ministry of Energy and Mines (MINEM) posted on X. “The Unión Eléctrica is working on its restoration.”
The Antonio Guiteras power plant, located in the province of Matanzas, is the island nation’s primary thermoelectric plant, according to the Cuba-focused digital news outlet CiberCuba.
No street lights appeared to be working on the Cuban capital of Havana’s roads, only a few traffic officers were on duty and only a few generators could be heard as many could not afford them, CNN reported.
About four hours later, MINEM said in part that it was reviewing “the status of each of the thermoelectric plants, the availability of fuel and the situation of the network.”
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez called the nationwide outage “highly sensitive” and said in part that the government was “devoting absolute priority to addressing and solving” it.
Power was later restored, albeit in a few parts of the country, MINEM announced. (RELATED: Ecuador Hit With Nationwide Blackout)
Cuba has been rocked by an energy crisis, with the past three days being the worst, the country’s Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz said Friday. Scarcity of fuel, the country’s problematic infrastructure and a rise in demand were to blame, he added.
Breakdowns that plagued the Antonio Maceo plant in Santiago de Cuba could end Friday, while two other plants would undergo maintenance that could last six months, Alfredo López Valdés, the general director of Unión Eléctrica, said.
Cuba imported over one hundred thousand air conditioning systems in 2023, one of the instances of increased consumption of electricity, López Valdés added.
Weather conditions delayed the delivery of fuel by tanker ships earlier this month, according to Edrey Rocha González, the Cuban Patroleum Union’s general director.
Officials also pointed the finger at strengthened U.S. sanctions and hurricanes, CNN reported.
Cuba is building 31 solar parks with each expected to generate 21 megawatts (MW), according to López Valdés.
#Cuba
Avanza la construcción de parques solares.
En el 2025, prácticamente de forma mensual, se incrementarán MW generados con fuentes renovables de energía. pic.twitter.com/YuKTK9PcFm— Ministerio de Energía y Minas de Cuba 🇨🇺 (@EnergiaMinasCub) October 18, 2024
Cubans needed to “save wherever possible,” Prime Minister Marrero Cruz said.
As part of power-saving measures, the communist-run country shut its schools down for Friday and the weekend, ordered nightclubs and recreation centers closed and permitted only “indispensable workers” to work, CNN reported.
This article was originally published at dailycaller.com
