A huge interruption of power supply in Cuba leaves millions in the dark Business and Economics News

The last grid break follows a series of national eclipses in recent months.

Cuba's national power network collapsed againLeaving millions of people without electricity.

The grid failed on Friday night around 8:15 pm (00:15 GMT) after a collapse in the Diezmero Substation in the capital Havana, a chain reaction launched that closed the electricity production across the island, according to Operator Union Electrica (UNE) officials.

At sunrise on Saturday, UNE said it only generated electricity clusters – about 225 MW or less than 10 percent of total demand. Authorities said parallel circuits help to provide electricity to key sectors such as hospitals.

“Several provinces have parallel chains and the generator units are beginning to synchronize with the national network,” said Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel on X.

The island of 9.7 million inhabitants has already suffered three national eclipses in the last months of 2024, two of them lasted several days.

While the last collapse of the network is the first this year, it also comes when the island has been fighting with one of its biggest economic crises for 30 years. Struck by the United States sanctionsCuba has relied on a subsidized Venezuelan oil for years, but this offering is increasingly unusual as the Caracas government fights their own economic problemsS

“At the moment, no one knows when the authorities will return,” Avel Bonn's resident told Reuters's news agency on Malecon Maleon Boulevard in Havana in early Saturday.

People in Havana already live with an almost daily interruption of the power supply of four or five hours, while those outside the capital are facing rolling eclipses that have reached 20 hours a day in recent weeks.

“My God, this is terrible, we're for a dark weekend,” Karen Gutierrez, a 32-year-old ice cream salesman in Havana, told the AFP news agency.

Andres Lopez, a 67-year-old resident of the eastern province of Holgin, added that he did not expect another eclipse so soon.

“It really encourages me,” he said. “Let's see when they return it (the power).”

Cuba blames its economic woes in the Cold War trade embargo, a network of laws and regulations that complicate financial transactions and the acquisition of basic things such as fuel and spare parts.

US President Donald Trump has recently tightened sanctions on communist government management, promising to restore a “difficult” policy towards the long -standing enemy of the United States.

In the meantime, to compensate for the shortage of electricity, Cuba competes to install a series of at least 55 solar farms with Chinese technology by the end of this year.

Local authorities said these facilities would generate about 1200 MW power, about 12 percent of the national amount.