A major power outage has left Cuba without power.
The Ministry of Energy and Mines posted on the social platform X at 12:35 p.m. EDT Friday informing the public the National Electricity System was disconnected at 11 a.m. The outage came after an unexpected shutdown of Antonio Guiteras power plant in Matanzas, Cuba.
The country’s electricity union has been working to solve the issue, according to social media posts. Meanwhile, about 10 million people are without power.
“We are in the process of restoring the electrical system: the status of each of the thermoelectric plants, the availability of fuel and the situation of the network are being reviewed. Distributed generation [distributed energy] is being used to create micro systems in the territories,” a translated update on X from Friday afternoon read.
Cuba has had a longstanding shortage of fuel to run power grids, largely due to fading shipments from countries such as Venezuela, Russia and Mexico. Prime Minster Manuel Marrero discussed the ongoing electricity crisis in a Thursday night television announcement.
Marrero explained that outages lead to an increased demand when power eventually returns, putting an additional strain on the power grid. Officials announced Thursday that all schools would be closed until Monday and cultural and nonessential activities such as nightclubs would shutter. They also announced that only essential employees would go to work, suspending nonvital services and services that deplete energy.
“From the country's leadership, we are devoting absolute priority to addressing and solving this highly sensitive energy contingency for the nation,” Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said on X. “There will be no rest until its recovery.”