By Dave Sherwood
HAVANA (Reuters) – Pockets of Cuba’s capital Havana saw the lights flicker back on though vast areas of the city and country continued without electricity on Sunday morning, after a nationwide grid collapse that knocked out power to 10 million people.
Havana´s electric company said on social media that approximately 19% of its clients in the city had seen power restored, but gave no estimate for full recovery.
Cuba´s energy and mines ministry said early on Sunday it had fired up its Felton power plant, one of the country´s largest and a major benchmark for restoring power in the eastern provinces. The country´s largest plant, Antonio Guinteras, in Matanzas, was not yet online, the ministry said.
In Havana and elsewhere, the clock was ticking for many residents who worry scarce stores of frozen foods could begin to spoil after around 36 hours without electricity.
Much of the city of two million people – densely populated and a major tourism center – has been without power since around 8:15 p.m. (0015 GMT) on Friday.
Only popular tourist hotels, a few restaurants, and homes and businesses with their own generators had kept the lights on.
Cuba’s grid collapsed on Friday evening after a transmission line at a substation in Havana shorted, beginning a chain reaction that completely shut down power generation across the island.
The Friday collapse marked the fourth nationwide blackout since October.
Cuba’s oil-fired power plants, already obsolete and struggling to keep the lights on, reached a full crisis last year as oil imports from Venezuela, Russia and Mexico dwindled.
Even before Friday´s grid collapse, many across the island had already been experiencing daily blackouts that reached 20 hours or more.
Cuba blames the mounting crisis on a Cold War-era U.S. trade embargo and fresh restrictions from U.S. President Donald Trump, who recently tightened sanctions on the communist-run government and vowed to restore a “tough” policy toward the long-time U.S. foe.
The government is pushing to develop large solar farms with help from China in a bid to reduce dependence on antiquated oil-fired generation.
(Reporting by Dave Sherwood; Editing by David Holmes)
