Cuba's electrical grid collapses, leaving millions without power

Record ID: 1983886

  • Title: Cuba's electrical grid collapses, leaving millions without power
  • Date: 15th March 2025
  • Summary: HAVANA, CUBA (MARCH 14, 2025) (REUTERS) (NIGHT SHOTS) VARIOUS OF DARK STREETS WITH LITTLE TRAFFIC BUILDING IN THE DARK PEOPLE WALKING ON DARK STREET, MOTORCYCLE PASSING BY DARK STREET WITH LITTLE TRAFFIC HOME IN THE DARK DARK STREET WITH LITTLE TRAFFIC PEOPLE ON THE STREET SEEN FROM MOVING VEHICLE RESIDENT WEARING HEADLAMP WALKING IN DARK STREET RESIDENT WEARING HEADLAMP S
  • Embargoed:
  • Keywords: Havana blackout crisis energy
  • Location: HAVANA, CUBA
  • City: HAVANA, CUBA
  • Country: Cuba
  • Topics: South America / Central America,Society/Social Issues
  • Reuters ID: LVA001902715032025RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text:Cuba's national electrical grid collapsed late on Friday (March 14), the country's Energy and Mines ministry said, leading to widespread blackouts in the capital Havana and across the Caribbean island nation.
    Energy ministry officials said an electrical substation in Havana failed around 8:15 p.m. (0015 GMT), knocking out power to a large swath of western Cuba, including the capital. The lights were out across all of Havana's waterfront skyline, a Reuters witness observed, with only a scattered few tourist hotels operating on fuel-fired generators.
    Reports on social media from outlying provinces both east and west of the capital city suggested much of the country of 10 million people was without power. The grid failure follows a string of nationwide blackouts late last year that plunged Cuba's frail and antiquated power generation system into near-total disarray, stressed by fuel shortages, natural disaster and economic crisis.
    Hours-long rolling blackouts have been the norm for months. Severe shortages of food, medicine and water have made life increasingly unbearable for many Cubans, who in recent years have fled the island in record-breaking numbers.
    (Production: Alien Fernandez, Mario Flores, Gloria Lopez)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2025. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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