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Grid collapses again
Cuba’s national electrical grid collapsed again on Monday as authorities struggled to restore power following a nationwide blackout late Sunday, state-run media reported.
“A fluctuation caused the collapse”
State television journalist Lazaro Manuel Alonso said a new disconnection of the National Electric System, or SEN, occurred on Monday afternoon despite progress made earlier in restoring service, adding, "A fluctuation caused the collapse,".
By early evening, authorities reported some progress, saying four generating units at Energas Jaruco were operating and several transmission substations around Havana had been re-energized.
The latest outage came after three nationwide grid failures over a nine-day period in July and another collapse late Sunday shortly before 11 p.m. (0300 GMT on Monday), leaving the island of roughly 10 million people vulnerable to increasingly frequent blackouts.
The Union Electrica de Cuba said adverse weather conditions affected the transmission network during restoration efforts, directly impacting generating units that had already returned to service, stating, "During the process of restoring the SEN, existing weather conditions caused disruptions to the grid".
Restoration disrupted
Cuba’s renewed collapse came less than a day after its sixth nationwide blackout of the year, with CNN reporting that thunderstorms disrupted the restoration attempt.
The national grid operator said, "prevailing weather conditions caused disruptions to the grid, directly affecting the generating units that were online," in a statement carried by state media.
In Havana, residents described the blackout’s impact as the lights went out across the city late Sunday and power returned only gradually, with eNCA saying by Monday morning about 23 percent of Havana had electricity restored.
eNCA quoted Mayra Rodriguez, a 43-year-old accountant, saying, "Since Friday I've only had an hour and a half of electricity, there's no water, there's nothing; what we Cubans are living through is not a life,".
The broader context in the reporting tied the grid’s fragility to fuel shortages and a U.S. energy embargo, with DW saying the outage came "on the heels of three nationwide power outages last month".
Diplomatic and daily stakes
The blackout crisis has taken on a diplomatic dimension, with Cuba blaming decades of U.S. sanctions and trade restrictions for limiting access to fuel, financing and spare parts needed to maintain its power system.
“plunging the island of 10 million people”
DW reported that Cuba’s state-owned grid operator said the island’s power system collapsed late on Sunday, while the U.S. energy embargo and aging infrastructure were cited as drivers of the outages, and the article said the system collapsed "plunging the island of 10 million people" into darkness.
The reporting also described how the outages are affecting daily life beyond electricity, with DW saying the series of outages had affected water supplies and cooling systems, making normal life extremely difficult.
Fox News said the U.S. Embassy in Havana told Americans to expect major disruptions, quoting, "All U.S. citizens in Cuba or planning to travel to Cuba should be aware and plan accordingly,".
As Cuba works to reactivate the grid, the sources tied the next phase to restoration protocols and the continuing strain of an aging oil-fired generation fleet, with the Jerusalem Post noting the blackout followed another outage on Sunday just before 11 p.m. local time.
