Cuba begins to restore energy after the third massive blackout this month

Cuba began to recover its energy system on Sunday after a nationwide collapse of the entire grid recorded on Saturday afternoon and night, which left millions of people in the dark for the third time this month.

A report from the state-owned Unión Eléctrica and the Ministry of Energy and Mines indicated that early Sunday morning around 72,000 customers in the capital -- including five hospitals -- already had electricity service, and in provinces such as the western Matanzas or the eastern Holguín local "microsystems" had been created for the most important vital centers.

In some capital areas, neighbors reported to The Associated Press that the fluid arrived in the early hours. Services such as internet were also intermittently affected.

Cuba faces an unprecedented energy crisis after in January the U.S. president Donald Trump imposed an oil embargo on the island, pressuring a change in political model and after attacking Venezuela, one of the main suppliers of fuel to the island.

The daily blackouts, by region or circuit, which last for hours, are hitting the population both due to the difficulties in cooking, as well as the water supply, the preservation of food or breakdowns in their appliances; and to which are added national collapses like that of Saturday.

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“With the blackout and low voltages, my refrigerator broke; that was today. The day before yesterday the voltage also dropped around 10:00 at night”, said to the AP Suleydi Crespo, a 33-year-old housewife who lives with two young children. “If there is no electricity tomorrow, you can't get water”.

Some neighbors also revealed their exasperation with the constant blackouts, whether national or partial circuit ones. "We are tired of this situation (the power cuts). Super tired," commented Alfredo Díaz, a 27-year-old graduate in electromedicine. The repeated blackouts and voltage drops in Cuba cause damage to household appliances, make it difficult to preserve food and access to drinking water (REUTERS/Norlys Perez) The Electric Union reported that the cause of the total disconnection of the National Energy System occurred due to an unforeseen outage of a generation unit at the thermoelectric plant in Nuevitas, in the province of Camagüey, but not the specific cause of the failure. “We have to get used to following the usual routine. What are we going to do?”, stated Dagnay Alarcón, a 35-year-old saleswoman. “We have to try to survive. Get used to the events, with or without electricity”. The last national blackout had been recorded last Monday and took several days to resolve. Cuban authorities and President Miguel Díaz-Canel himself acknowledged the seriousness of the energy situation in recent days. The Deputy Minister of Energy and Mines, Argelio Abad Vigo, detailed during the week that the country has accumulated three months without receiving supplies of diesel, fuel oil, gasoline, jet fuel for aviation, or liquefied petroleum gas, which are vital for the economy and for the generation of electricity. The repeated blackouts and voltage drops in Cuba cause damage to household appliances, make it difficult to preserve food, and hinder access to drinking water (REUTERS/Norlys Perez) The sale of fuels for vehicles is rationed, airlines suspended flights or reduced frequencies and the working day was cut in many centers.

Cuba produces barely 40% of the fuel it needs to move its economy, which is also very affected by the economic crisis —since the beginning of the decade— following the pandemic and an increase in US sanctions. In general, it depends for the rest of its imports on Russia, Mexico and Venezuela, which did not occur.

You can also read: In addition, the large thermoelectric plants are more than 30 years old and maintenance or capitalization was limited. The authorities launched a photovoltaic energy plan that has increased in recent months.