Cuba faces power crisis amid nationwide blackouts

Cuba has been grappling with a severe energy crisis triggered by a significant failure in its national power grid, which occurred on a Wednesday. This incident resulted in extended and widespread blackouts affecting the entire island. The state-owned power company, Unión Eléctrica, reported that the outages lasted for 24 hours and continued into the next morning, highlighting the challenges of the country's aging energy infrastructure. The crisis has been exacerbated by a combination of factors including power plant breakdowns, fuel shortages, and ongoing maintenance work. More than 1,700 megawatts of power generation capacity was rendered unavailable at peak demand due to these interruptions. Officials noted that an automatic shutdown was prompted by a false signal indicating overheated steam at one of the thermal plants, which significantly strained the already precarious system. Cuba's energy woes are not new; the country has faced recurrent blackouts in recent years as its power plants, many reliant on imported fuel, struggle to meet increasing demands for electricity. Common outages, lasting several hours a day, have led to public protests, expressing citizens' frustrations with the government’s inability to provide stable electricity supply. According to some officials, the U.S. embargo has been cited as a contributing factor to the deteriorating situation. The government has been making efforts to address these issues, and by late Wednesday night, progress was made with the restoration of around 500 megawatts of generation capacity. However, given the complexities and ongoing challenges within the energy sector, it remains uncertain how quickly and effectively the situation will improve, leaving many Cubans in a state of uncertainty about their basic utility services.