People walk along a dimly lit street in Havana, Cuba, on May 17 during one of many recent blackouts across the country. The entire island’s electric grid was offline Friday following an unexpected shutdown of a key thermoelectric plant east of Havana. File Photo by Ernesto Mastrascusa/EPA-EFE
Oct. 18 (UPI) — The electric grid on the island of Cuba went entirely offline Friday after the failure of a major power plant east of Havana, government officials announced.
Following an unexpected shutdown of the Antonio Guiteras Thermoelectric Power Plant in Matanzas, the communist-run country’s national electricity system was “completely disconnected” at 11 a.m. local time, Cuba’s Ministry of Energy and Mines announced in a post on the X social media platform.
Officials said the Cuban Electric Union “is working on its restoration.”
The highest levels of the government are “working to resolve” the energy emergency as soon as possible, Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz declared in social media post, adding, “We will not rest until it is restored.”
By 5 p.m. EDT, the energy ministry reported it had partially restored natural gas transmission, which is being used to supply idled thermoelectric plants. Micro-electric grids were also being restored in several locales, including Guantanamo and Granma.
The failure of the 330-megawatt Antonio Guiteras plant comes after months of rolling blackouts on the island of 10 million inhabitants, which Communist Party officials have blamed on lack of fuel, crumbling infrastructure and increase in demand.
The government has responded by implementing household power consumption limits throughout the county and suspending all “non-essential work activities” while incentivizing teleworking or remote work.
The Cuban Petroleum Union said Thursday that fuel oil shipments which were supposed to arrive in the country on Oct. 9 were delayed due to Hurricane Milton and could not reach Matanzas until Monday, thus disrupting planned deliveries in Havana and elsewhere while causing all operations to be delayed.
Meanwhile, the aging electric grid is being taxed by consumption growth in the residential sector, including the arrival of more than 100,000 air new conditioning units into the country in the last year, according to Alfredo López Valdés, general director of Cuban Electric Union.
The agency said this week that seven of Cuba’s eight thermoelectric plants are either disabled or currently under maintenance, CNN reported.