Mass Blackout Plunges Western Cuba Into Darkness
Large swaths of Cuba were left in the dark Wednesday after a major power plant failure triggered a sweeping blackout across Havana and much of the island’s western region. According to the New York Post , the…
Large swaths of Cuba were left in the dark Wednesday after a major power plant failure triggered a sweeping Blackout across Havana and much of the island’s western region.
According to the New York Post, the government’s electricity utility said an outage at the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric power plant east of the capital disrupted electricity from Pinar del Río in the west to Camagüey in central Cuba.
State-run Radio Rebelde reported that restoring operations at the facility could take at least 72 hours.
The plant’s technical director, Román Pérez Castañeda, said a pipe burst in the boiler, causing a water leak and a fire that was extinguished without major damage. Crews must now locate the fault before restarting the unit.
Energy and Mines Minister Vicente de la O Levy said the government was prioritizing power to critical infrastructure as two plants began coming back online.
“We are working to restore the National Electric System amid a complex energy situation,” he wrote on X.
By late afternoon, authorities said only 2.5% of Havana — roughly 21,100 customers — had electricity restored. No updated figures were released by late Wednesday night.