Cuba condemned to darkness: The island suffers a new national blackout

Cuba has suffered this Wednesday a new nationwide blackout after the collapse of its Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric power plant in the center of the country, reported state-run utilities provider Union Electrica (UNE). It is the fifth national incident in the last year that the island registers.

"09:14 | Fall of the National Electroenergetic System after unforeseen departure of CTE Antonio Guiteras," UNE wrote on X, without giving further details.

The company controlled by the Havana regime also added in another message that "joint actions will be taken with the highest authorities for the recovery of the system." So far the Caribbean island remains totally disconnected from the electricity system and its 15 provinces remain in darkness.

Last Sunday a failure in a power line in eastern Cuba also caused the total disconnection of five provinces, although shortly before midnight the authorities reported the restoration of electricity service in one of these regions. The rest were in darkness for more than 12 hours.

This blackout has exacerbated the situation experienced by the Caribbean country, where scheduled power outages have been increasing over the last few months, and some populations barely have power three hours a day.

Cuba faces a severe energy crisis due to the poor state of its electrical infrastructure, with eight obsolete thermoelectric plants and generators throughout the island, which require the country's scarce fuel to operate, in addition to a worn-out network.

The installation of 28 photovoltaic parks, with the help of China, of the 52 planned for this year has not helped to reduce the outages.