Cuba’s National Power Grid Collapses Again as Major Power Plant Shuts Down
TL/DR –
Cuba’s national power grid has collapsed again due to the shutdown of the Antonio Guiteras power plant, the country’s top electricity producer, leaving millions of residents without power. The failure of the already struggling, obsolete, oil-fired power plants has been exacerbated as oil imports from Venezuela, Russia, and Mexico dwindled. These recurrent power outages have been attributed to difficulties in acquiring fuel for power plants due to the tightening of a decades-long U.S. trade embargo, a broader economic crisis, and natural disasters like hurricanes.
Antonio Guiteras Power Plant Shutdown Leads to Power Grid Collapse in Cuba
Another collapse of Cuba’s national power grid has plunged millions of residents into darkness. This most recent blackout was triggered by the overnight shutdown of the Antonio Guiteras power plant in Matanzas, the country’s top electricity producer.
The Ministry of Energy and Mines has announced efforts to restore power. Cuba’s aging oil-fired power plants have been in crisis due to dwindling oil imports from Venezuela, Russia, and Mexico.
The Wednesday morning system failure left Havana, the capital, nearly entirely dark, according to a Reuters report. Only a handful of large hotels and government buildings remained lit at sunrise. Reports on social media suggest the entire island with a population of 10 million was impacted, although the government has not confirmed the extent of the outage.
Previous power grid collapses in October were attributed to dwindling fuel supplies and hurricane Oscar’s impact. In November, hurricane Raphael caused further damage, knocking out the grid as it made landfall as a Category 3 storm.
Apart from power outages, Cuba is also grappling with an economic crisis, marked by inflation and shortages of medicine, food, and water. The Cuban authorities have attributed these challenges to tightening US trade embargo during Donald Trump’s first presidency.
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