Cuba’s national electrical system collapsed in the early hours of Wednesday after the failure of the country’s largest power plant, the Government reported. the latest of several such failures amid fuel shortages, natural disasters and an unprecedented economic crisis.
The Ministry of Energy and Mines said that the Antonio Guiteras power plant in Matanzas, the largest electricity producer on the island, It had stopped working around 2 a.m., causing the network to collapse.
Cuba’s oil-fired power plants, already obsolete and struggling to keep the lights on, They entered a full crisis this year as oil imports from Venezuela, Russia and Mexico decreased, contributing to multiple blackouts across the country for two months.
The system failure on Wednesday morning had left the capital, Havana, almost completely in the dark, according to a Reuters witness. Only pre-dawn lights were visible in a series of large hotels and government buildings in the city.
Reports of blackouts elsewhere in Cuba on social media suggested the entire island of around 10 million people was without power, although the Government had not yet confirmed the extent of the interruption. The Ministry of Energy and Mines said it was working to reconnect the electrical system.
Marta Elena Feitó, Minister of Labor and Social Security, said early on local television that “work and teaching activities are suspended for the duration of this process.”. And he added that some basic services such as hospitals and other health centers are maintained.
The Cuban electrical grid collapsed several times in October, when fuel supplies dwindled and Hurricane Oscar hit the eastern end of the island.
