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- October 13, 202618°
- BIST10012,151-0.94%
- USD49.220.00%
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- INTEREST37.00%-1.00
- BITCOIN81,374-0.47%
- October 13, 202618°
Cuba's national power grid collapses for second time in five days
Cuba announced the complete collapse of its power grid for the second time in five days. The government stated that the US oil embargo has deepened fuel shortages and delayed the restoration of electricity service.
Cuba's national power grid collapsed completely at 4:30 p.m. local time on Friday. This was the second total blackout in five days.
The National Electric Company (UNE) announced on the X platform that power is being restored gradually as conditions allow. The company stated that the fuel shortage not only makes the grid more vulnerable to failures but also limits the use of backup generators running on imported diesel, slowing the delivery of electricity to regions.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel described the situation on Saturday as "extremely complex due to the US oil embargo." He stressed that the restrictions on fuel imports imposed by the embargo since January have made operating the electrical system more difficult.
According to Cuban officials, Washington has allowed only one Russian oil tanker to transport approximately 100,000 tons of oil since January. This has deepened the fuel crisis for power plants and backup generators.
This marks the fourth total blackout in the country in the last six months, and the ninth since the end of 2024. The latest outage came right after a previous failure on Monday that took about two days to resolve. In many regions, power cuts continue due to consumption restrictions imposed to preserve fuel stocks.
Although Cuba's theoretical electricity generation capacity is about 7,700 megawatts, actual production averages around 2,122 megawatts and can drop to as low as 1,224 megawatts at times. This large deficit increases the risk of a total blackout.
The country remains dependent on aging thermoelectric plants from the Soviet era, which frequently break down and face chronic fuel shortages. US restrictions on oil shipments have further aggravated this crisis in recent months.
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