Cuba Falls Into Total Electricity Blackout After Power Plant Fails

Cuba has lost electricity and appears to be experiencing a nationwide blackout after one of its power plants unexpectedly failed Friday morning.

In a post on X, the Cuban Ministry of Energy and Mines said that the António Guiteras Thermoelectric Power Plant went offline around 11 a.m. local time Friday.

“There is no defined time for total restoration, but work is being done to connect the electrical system as soon as possible [translated from Spanish],” said Lázaro Guerra, director of the energy ministry, according to Cuban state-owned media.

A day earlier, Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz, President Miguel Diaz-Canel, and other top government officials went on national television and radio stations to explain that a lack of fuel was causing an energy emergency in the country.

During their address, the government officials instructed Cubans to stop non-essential work activities and shut down high electricity-consuming appliances like refrigerators and ovens during peak hours. School was canceled until at least Monday.

The officials said that fuel ships that had been scheduled to arrive in Cuba were delayed by bad weather in the region, contributing to the energy crisis, but acknowledged that the country’s infrastructure was in desperate need of work and modernization.

This is a developing story.

Correction 5:25 PM: An earlier version of this post stated a nuclear power plant failed. We regret the error.