Cuba’s Vitality Disaster: A Systemic Breakdown

For a lot of Cubans, the sudden cease of a fan is extra than simply an annoyance on a tropical island; it’s a each day reminder of a vital, nationwide downside. On a median day, the Cuban authorities can meet solely 50 to 70 % of its nation’s electrical energy wants. On high of that, Cuba’s whole grid has collapsed 4 occasions within the final six months.

The issue stems from years of neglect of Cuba’s power infrastructure, exacerbated by constrained entry to international capital and a failure to adapt to new power choices. In consequence, Cubans are experiencing a major breakdown in fundamental companies, such because the storage of recent merchandise, fundamental meals preparation, public lighting, and entry to companies. This has compelled residents to take extraordinary measures, like cooking a number of meals without delay and dealing by flashlight.

Cuba isn’t simply in an power disaster; the nation’s grid sits on the verge of systemic failure. The Nationwide Electrical System, most of which was constructed after 1959, hasn’t obtained the funding and upkeep it wants for 35 years—a consequence of Cuba’s advanced political and financial historical past. If neglect continues, the island nation can pay the excessive worth of additional financial decline, and elevated social and political instability.

How did my dwelling nation get right here?

Cuba’s Vitality Infrastructure Disaster

Cuba’s grid infrastructure is so weak that run-of-the-mill issues like transmission line failures and generator journeys are inflicting widespread outages. The surprising shutdown of the Antonio Guiteras oil-fired energy plant began the whole blackout in October 2024. Wholesome grids ought to have the ability to detect and isolate these sorts of points, and supply backup by way of built-in redundancies. However Cuba’s previous safety techniques couldn’t detect the faults, and there weren’t sufficient spinning reserves to compensate for the era instability, making restoration inconceivable.

Underlying the blackouts are three systemic issues: years of insufficient funding, substandard gas, and deferred upkeep. Cuba’s growing old thermal energy crops—the spine of the system, almost all of which run on crude oil or gas oil—have gotten much less dependable, and should function effectively under capability due to gas shortages and corrosion. One of many greatest, the 330-megawatt Antonio Guiteras plant in Matanzas, usually breaks down as a result of there aren’t sufficient alternative elements to restore it. Different services have been hit with hostile occasions, such the 2022 fires on the Lidio Ramón Pérez (Felton) and Máximo Gómez (Mariel) thermal crops. In the course of the first 5 months of 2025, solely 34 % of the capability of all of Cuba’s energy crops, primarily based on 2023 numbers, was obtainable on a median each day foundation.

Cuba’s power system additionally suffers from years of reliance on home, poor-quality heavy crude oil, which is corrosive as a result of it’s excessive in sulfur. This has accelerated the damage and tear on boilers, generators, and pipes in Cuba’s energy crops, shortening their life spans and inflicting frequent and expensive outages. Cuba has secured a considerable quantity of oil from Venezuela since 2000 by way of a positive settlement. However Venezuela’s steady financial issues have made this outdoors oil supply much less dependable, with shipments dwindling in recent times.

To assist compensate for energy deficits, Cuba in 2019 began renting floating thermal energy crops from different international locations similar to Turkey’s Karpowership. By 2023, eight of those sorts of ships have been floating in Mariel Bay, Havana Bay, and Santiago de Cuba Bay. However their destiny is now simply one other symptom of the disaster. The federal government had bother paying the excessive leasing costs, so the ships’ operators withdrew from Cuba’s waters, taking lots of of megawatts with them.

Cuba’s Renewable Vitality Choices

Heavy crude oil isn’t Cuba’s solely useful resource; it has a wealth of untapped renewable power choices, together with photo voltaic, wind, and doubtlessly sugarcane biomass. However the transition to renewables has progressed slowly and considerably haphazardly, regardless of formidable targets set by the federal government.

Essential renewable power tasks usually get delayed as a consequence of bureaucratic hurdles and an absence of funding. The instability of the grid makes it more difficult to combine large-scale renewable power installations, as they require steady connections to perform successfully. And whereas the nation actively seeks photo voltaic power, it’s overlooking its once-thriving sugar sector, and the biomass and ethanol assets that include it.

The Cuban authorities’s puzzling determination to take a position closely in constructing costly accommodations and enhancing tourism infrastructure whereas neglecting crucial grid updates has additionally made the system extra weak. From 2010 and 2024, Cuba spent about 32 % of whole funding on tourism-related infrastructure, and solely 12 % on power infrastructure, in accordance with Cuba’s Nationwide Statistics Workplace.

Cuba’s economic system is in a poor state as a result of well-established inefficiencies of its financial mannequin and U.S. sanctions that worsened beneath the primary Trump administration and stay largely in place. In consequence, the federal government lacks the required exhausting forex to import gasoline, purchase the spare elements it wants, entry the newest know-how, and entice important international funding that’s important for upgrading its power infrastructure.

Cuba’s Energy Outages and Rationing Breeds Resentment

The Cuban authorities reacts to its extreme deficit with placing public ceremony. Each morning, often between 7:00 and eight:00, officers brazenly declare the anticipated electrical energy era shortfall. Then, provincial leaders throughout the island painstakingly select which of their communities will lose energy and for a way lengthy—on common 19 hours, and a few over 24 hours.

Blackouts for these “interruptible circuits,” as provincial electrical corporations confer with them, are presupposed to rotate primarily based on a schedule. However the precise electrical energy availability virtually all the time falls in need of the plan, so the rotation isn’t carried out as meant. And with sure companies and companies being prioritized for energy, a disproportionate share of the outages falls on a portion of consumers.

Havana, the capital, will get partly shielded from this, as a consequence of its political and financial significance. It’s a favoritism that understandably breeds resentment in different areas. However even in Havana, residents on interruptible circuits should take care of not less than 4 hours of energy outages on daily basis—a state of affairs that has worsened this yr.

In each the town and the countryside, the ability outages and extended uncertainty have altered fundamental companies, economies, and each day life. Fridges lose their cooling energy, ruining priceless meals that was bought at a excessive worth. Companies should shut, leading to misplaced income and productiveness. College students wrestle to check when their cellphone batteries are low, partially as a result of they use their telephones as flashlights. Some medical services have backup turbines, however they’re not all the time operational as a consequence of an absence of spare elements. Web connectivity has grown much less dependable.

Cuba’s Restoration Plans

The Cuban administration has admitted that the state of affairs is extreme and has developed particular restoration plans. These embrace investing in thermal plant upkeep, including new capability, including photo voltaic power, and securing gas provides from overseas. Nonetheless, progress is gradual and restricted by the identical issues that triggered the disaster within the first place.

To repair the thermal models, it’s crucial to carry main electrical energy suppliers, similar to Guiteras and Cienfuegos, again to a state the place they will function reliably once more. Nonetheless, this technique is akin to patching up a dam that’s falling aside. Lengthy-term enhancements are extra necessary than simply repairs, however they require assets that aren’t at the moment obtainable.

There are insurance policies in place that encourage rooftop photo voltaic, which individuals generally purchase from different international locations. Small photo voltaic parks are additionally being constructed; on the finish of 2024 photo voltaic capability reached 298 MW. Pilot tasks for wind farms are underway.

Angel Rodriguez makes use of a transformer from an previous tv to cost a battery in preparation for blackouts at his dwelling within the Bahia neighborhood of Havana on 26 Might 2025.Ramon Espinosa/AP

However growth lacks scale and pace. Massive tasks usually wrestle with monetary constraints and insufficient planning. The federal government set a objective of deriving 37 % of Cuba’s power from renewable sources by 2030; to this point they’ve reached solely 3 %.

Cuba is actively seeking to companion internationally on power initiatives. Agreements with Russia primarily concentrate on modernizing current thermal services and probably developing new ones. Mexico and different allies have additionally helped by sending gas provides.

Talks with potential traders for inexperienced tasks are transferring ahead, however the funding local weather is kind of difficult due to Cuba’s financial mannequin and disaster, its historical past of defaults on funds to international corporations, and U.S. sanctions. In partnership with China, Cuba is constructing as much as 2,000 MW of photo voltaic capability over greater than 92 photo voltaic parks throughout the nation. China already despatched Cuba gear for greater than 100 MW of photo voltaic capability by way of a distinct program. By January 2026, about 1,100 MW of this new capability is anticipated to be operational, in accordance with the Cuban authorities.

As the first energy grid fails, Cubans with assets are taking issues into their very own palms, usually in determined methods. Companies, hospitals, and rich households are putting in gasoline and photo voltaic turbines; the incessant noise from which has develop into a part of the town’s soundscape. Some communities are working collectively to put in photo voltaic and battery techniques. For instance, a farmers’ cooperative in Artemisa powers its processing and irrigation services this fashion. These examples present a vital, bottom-up change, however they’re few and much between due to prohibitive upfront prices.

Cuba’s individuals are struggling as a result of the power system is being pushed too far. And the excellent modifications required for real, long-term restoration are at the moment past the island’s capabilities. The lights got here again on after every main blackout, however the specter of the subsequent one looms continually.