Cuba hit by nationwide power outage, restoration underway

Cuba’s National Electric Union confirmed that electricity was gradually returning Wednesday evening after a nationwide blackout left nearly all of the island’s 9.7 million residents without power earlier in the day, according to an update from Reuters. 

The grid collapsed at 9:14 a.m. local time, forcing airports, hospitals and water pumps to rely on backup systems.

The outage marked the fourth collapse of the national grid in less than a year.

In past incidents, full service has taken up to three days to restore. 

Havana, home to roughly two million residents, was working to bring major power plants back online.

Even before this week’s failure, much of the population had been enduring daily outages of 16 hours or more. 

The breakdown comes on top of recurring shortages of fuel, food and basic goods, part of the country’s most severe economic crisis in decades.

Cuba’s power network relies heavily on aging oil-fired plants, which have struggled to meet demand as imports of Venezuelan, Russian and Mexican fuel have dwindled. 

As noted in previous reports, it’s common for resorts in Cuba to use generators in situations like this.  

During the blackouts of late 2024, most hotels sold by Sunwing, for example, were not affected because more than 90 per cent of properties were on generators, the tour operator told PAX at the time. 

Last year, any guests staying at Sunwing-approved hotels that had no power were moved to hotels that did. 

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