Cuba begins recovery efforts after second grid collapse in a week

HAVANA – Cuba said it had begun efforts early on March 22 to restore power after its grid collapsed for the second time in a week amid a US oil blockade that has dealt a major blow to the island’s already ailing energy infrastructure.

The grid collapsed on March 21 at 6.32pm after a major power plant in Nuevitas, in eastern Cuba’s Camaguey province, failed and went offline, grid operator UNE said, causing a cascade effect that knocked out power to the nation’s 10 million people.

Cuba’s energy and mines ministry said early on March 22 it had established microsystems – smaller, closed circuits – in all of the island’s provinces to restore power for vital services like hospitals, water supply and food distribution.

The country’s two gas-fired power plants, operated by Energas, were running in Varadero and Boca de Jaruco, and electricity had reached the nearby Santa Cruz oil-fired plant, the energy ministry said on social media.

Before daybreak on March 22, the streets of the capital Havana were almost entirely dark as early risers sat on doorsteps, chatting with neighbours and swatting mosquitoes under mostly clear skies lit by unusually bright stars.

Cellular service and internet were almost entirely unavailable in most areas, leaving many without communication of any kind.

Twice in a week

Cuba’s electrical grid has been teetering on the edge of collapse and unreliable for months, leaving the island’s residents in the dark for hours a day, and sometimes longer, even in better times.

But the blackout incident on March 21 marks the third major power outage in March, as a majority of the system went down on March 4 when a key thermoelectric generating plant failed.

The power grid also went completely offline on March 16 for unexplained reasons.

Cuba has experienced a series of major or total outages in recent years, but two total failures in the space of a week are exceptional.

US President Donald Trump has imposed an oil blockade on the Caribbean island after Washington deposed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Jan 3, removing him from the country to face drug-trafficking charges in an early morning raid.

Venezuela had been Cuba’s most important benefactor, providing oil to its close ally on favourable terms.

Since then, Mr Trump has cut off Venezuelan exports to Cuba and threatened other countries with punitive tariffs if they sell oil to Cuba.

Mexico, the most important oil supplier to Cuba, along with Venezuela, has halted its oil shipments while also providing humanitarian aid.

With global oil prices surging due to the US and Israeli war with Iran, the US has temporarily lifted sanctions on Russian oil products but included an exemption that specifically excludes transactions involving Cuba, in addition to North Korea and Crimea.

Cuba has long blamed the US trade embargo for economic failures, including its failing power grid, while Washington has attributed the failures to Cuba’s Soviet-style command economy. REUTERS