Havana wakes up without power after nationwide grid collapse

Record ID: 1983825

  • Title: Havana wakes up without power after nationwide grid collapse
  • Date: 15th March 2025
  • Summary: HAVANA, CUBA (MARCH 15, 2025) (REUTERS) (NIGHT SHOT) CARS DRIVING DOWN DARK STREET AT DAWN (NIGHT SHOT) CUBAN FLAG NEXT TO BUILDING TOWER / FULL MOON VEHICLES DRIVING IN DARK / CAPITOL BUILDING IN THE BACKGROUND AT DAWN VARIOUS OF PEOPLE SITTING NEXT TO THE SEA ON MALECON AT DAWN (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) HAVANA RESIDENT, ABEL BONNE, SAYING: "Right now, no one knows when the p
  • Embargoed:
  • Keywords: Cuba blackout grid system
  • Location: HAVANA, CUBA
  • City: HAVANA, CUBA
  • Country: Cuba
  • Topics: South America / Central America,Government/Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA001909715032025RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Cuba remained largely without power on Saturday (March 15) morning after the island's grid collapsed the night before, knocking out electricity for 10 million people and raising fresh questions about the viability of its antiquated generating system.
    At sunrise, the island's grid operator UNE said it was generating only a trickle of electricity - around 225 MW, or less than 10% of total demand, enough to cover some vital services like hospitals, water supply and food production centers. Officials said they had begun the process of firing up the country's decades-old generation plants, but gave no timeline for restoring service.
    Havana was still largely without electricity on Saturday morning. Light traffic navigated intersections with no functioning stoplights and cellular internet was weak or non-existent in some areas.
    Abel Bonne chatted with friends on Havana's Malecon waterfront boulevard early Saturday, taking in the fresh sea breeze after a stuffy night without power.
    "Right now, no one knows when the power will come back," he said. "This is the first time this has happened this year, but last year it happened three times."
    Severe shortages of food, medicine and water have made life increasingly unbearable for many Cubans, and people have been fleeing the island in recent years in record-breaking numbers.
    Havana resident Yunior Reyes, a bike taxi driver, was back on the job Saturday morning despite the blackout, fretting that his food reserves might spoil in the day's heat.
    Cuba's grid failed Friday evening around 8:15 p.m. (0015 GMT) after an aging component of a transmission line at a substation in Havana shorted, beginning a chain reaction that completely shut down power generation across the island, UNE officials said.
    Cuba blames its economic woes on a Cold War-era U.S. trade embargo, a web of laws and regulations that complicate financial transactions and the acquisition of essentials like fuel and spare parts.
    (Production: Anett Rios, Mario Fuentes, Nina Lopez)
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