Cuba hit by third nationwide blackout this year

Cuba suffered its third nationwide blackout of the year on Monday, the state electricity utility said. The outage comes amid a worsening fuel shortage, prolonged power cuts and mounting pressure on the island’s ageing energy system.

HAVANA: Cuba suffered another nationwide electricity outage on Monday, marking the third such blackout since the start of the year, according to the state power company.

The UNE electricity utility said the country’s national generation system had gone offline and that the cause was being examined. In a post on X, the company said:

"There has been a total disconnection from the national electricity generation system"

It was investigating what caused the failure.

Worsening power crisis

The latest outage is the eighth blackout recorded on the island since late 2024. It comes as Cuba, home to 9.6 million people, faces increasingly severe electricity cuts in an effort to preserve limited fuel supplies. Outages have stretched beyond 24 hours in some parts of Havana and exceeded 70 hours in certain rural areas.

Electricity shortages have long been part of daily life in Cuba, where the power network relies largely on ageing Soviet-era plants. The system is in disrepair, and that the pace of blackouts has intensified since January after US President Donald Trump imposed an oil blockade that further reduced fuel available for power plants.

Authorities have cited fuel shortages for the generators used to support the country’s fragile grid. Since January, Washington has allowed only one oil tanker from Russia to dock in Cuba.

Broader strain on the island

The blockade, along with a wave of sanctions targeting the Cuban state and foreign firms doing business with it, has pushed the country closer to collapse. Shortages of food, drinking water and medicine have become more acute, prompting the United Nations to warn of a humanitarian emergency.

Cuba has also been investing in solar energy to ease pressure on the electricity system, but solar still makes up only 10 per cent of the country’s energy mix.

In March, most of Cuba, including Havana, was hit by another major power outage. At the time, the country’s electricity union said it was working to restore service and that the disruption extended from the central province of Camaguey to Pinar del Rio in the far west. An eastern thermoelectric power plant remained online and recovery procedures had been activated.