Havana (Cuba), 15 Mar. (LaPresse/AP) – Cuba suffered a massive blackout on Friday evening, affecting Havana and the country's provinces and leaving millions of people in the dark. The Ministry of Energy declared that at around 20:15 local time, a fault at the Diezmero substation on the outskirts of Havana caused ‘a significant loss of generation in western Cuba and, with it, the collapse of the national electrical system’. The ministry then assured that it was working on the restoration process. The streets of Havana were plunged into darkness, illuminated only by the windows of hotels equipped with generators. The internet network was also affected. Since the end of last year, Cuba has suffered three serious blackouts in its national energy system. The country's electricity grid is plagued by frequent outages, with more than half of the country experiencing blackouts during peak hours. The outages are mainly caused by a shortage of fuel and outdated infrastructure. In many parts of the island, electricity is essential for cooking and pumping water. The island's authorities have launched a programme to install photovoltaic parks and have promised that dozens of them will be ready this year. In the past, blackouts have sparked anti-government protests in 2021, 2022 and 2024.
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