Cuba’s National Grid Collapses for Third Time in Ten Days

Cuba’s national grid collapsed for the third time in 10 days on Tuesday. The Guardian reported that the outage followed a six-month oil blockade imposed by the United States. The grid was reconnected at 7 a.m.

On Wednesday. Residents described immediate hardships. Alberto, a middle-aged man in Havana’s Vedado neighbourhood, said last week that an hour of electricity was insufficient to run water pumps or charge phones.

Laura Garcia, an illustrator and single mother from Havana’s 10 de Octubre neighbourhood, said she had gone 72 hours without power. Summer temperatures in the mid-30s Celsius with 80 percent humidity compounded the strain. Vicente de la O Levy, Cuba’s minister of energy, stated there is a total absence of fuel and no access to spare parts for thermoelectric units.

Jorge Piñon, a senior energy researcher at the University of Texas, said the backbone of the system remains big power plants that are old, broken and tired. The Guardian reported that the Cuban government announced 176 measures to expand the private sector and invite investment. The US State Department described those measures as superficial smoke signals.