Cuba struggles to restore power to millions as night falls

16/3/2025 11:42

Cuba's capital Havana plunged into darkness for a second night on Saturday as efforts to restore power proceeded in fits and starts, with setbacks slowing progress and leaving several million still without electricity across the island.



Cuba's grid collapsed on Friday evening after a transmission line at a substation in Havana shorted, beginning a chain reaction that completely shut down power generation across the island, officials said.



The grid operator focused early efforts on ensuring electricity for vital services including hospitals, water supply and food production centers.



But by early Saturday night, neither of Cuba's two largest power plants - Felton, in Holguin province, and Antonio Guiteras, in Matanzas - was generating electricity, leaving the majority of the island's homes in the dark.



Lazaro Guerra, the country's top electricity official, said on the evening newscast he hoped both power plants would come online overnight, but warned progress would be necessarily slow to avoid further setbacks.