Cuba is facing a third setback in restoring power, with millions still without electricity

Cuba’s efforts to restore electricity to the island were interrupted for the third time late Saturday, Cuban authorities said shortly before midnight, leaving millions in the dark and raising new questions about the effectiveness of the government’s bid to restore electricity.

Cuba’s national electricity system crashed for the first time at noon on Friday after the island’s main power plant shut down. The grid collapsed again on Saturday morning, state media reported.

In the evening, authorities reported some progress in restoring power before announcing that the grid had collapsed again.

“Today at 10:25 p.m. the electricity was cut again,” said the Havana Electric company on Telegram late Saturday.

The post was later removed from the company’s Telegram feed. It was not immediately clear why the post was removed, but millions were still without electricity early Sunday morning.

Cuba’s Ministry of Energy said shortly after the Havana Electric site that it was working to restore services, adding that “some blackouts” had occurred in the “western system,” including the capital, Havana.

“The process of re-establishing the electricity system continues to be complicated,” said the department via X.

The collapse of the third grid marks a major setback in the government’s efforts to quickly restore electricity to already exhausted citizens facing shortages of food, medicine and fuel.

Reuters reporters witnessed two small protests overnight, one in Marianao and the other in the Cuatro Caminos neighborhood of Havana. Various videos of protests elsewhere in the capital began to appear on social media late Saturday, although Reuters was unable to confirm their authenticity.

Internet traffic dropped sharply in Cuba on Saturday, according to data from internet watchdog group NetBlocks, as blackouts made it difficult for many islanders to charge phones and get online.

“Network data shows that Cuba remains offline as the island suffers its second nationwide blackout,” Netblocks said on Saturday.

The storm is headed for Cuba

Meanwhile, Hurricane Oscar made landfall early Sunday morning on the island of Great Inagua in the southeast of the Bahamas and was headed for parts of eastern Cuba.

The strong winds of this typhoon reached a speed of 130 km/h and a maximum storm force, making it a Category 1 typhoon, is expected to reach Guantanamo or Holguin on Sunday afternoon.

The US National Hurricane Center expects Oscar to weaken after making landfall on the northeastern coast of Cuba, but could still become a tropical storm when it moves from northern Cuba late Monday and across the central Bahamas on Tuesday.

Even before the blackout, a severe power outage on Friday forced Cuba’s communist-run government to send non-essential government workers home and cancel schools for children as it seeks to conserve fuel for power generation.

The government has blamed weeks of worsening blackouts – as long as 10 to 20 hours a day across much of the island – on crumbling infrastructure, fuel shortages and growing demand.

Cuba also blames the US trade embargo, as well as sanctions imposed by then-president Donald Trump, for continued difficulties in obtaining fuel and spare parts to operate and maintain its oil refineries.

The US has denied any role in the grid failure.