Cuba hit by widespread power blackout amid US oil chokehold

By Annett Rios and Alien Fernandez

The electric company Union Electrica UNE said the blackout was caused by an unexpected outage at Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant about 100 km (62 miles) east of Havana, cutting electricity from Pinar del Rio in the far west to central-eastern Camaguey province.

Power was also out in eastern Las Tunas province as substations there malfunctioned, a company official told state television, leaving only the far eastern provinces with electricity.

Repairs to the Guiteras generating station could take three to four days, the regional newspaper Giron reported, citing Roman Perez, technical director of the plant.

“The main objective is to reduce water consumption by eliminating the malfunction in the boiler’s superheater and other existing leaks,” Giron quoted Perez as saying.

Cuba has experienced a series of major blackouts in recent years, even before U.S. actions to cut off oil shipments, particularly from top supplier Venezuela after Washington’s ouster of leader Nicolas Maduro in early January.

Cuba’s government has attributed its economic crisis to decades of economic sanctions from the U.S., contributing to the lack of investment in power generation and the electric grid.

People in Havana, accustomed to rolling power outages associated with state rationing, mostly took the blackout in stride. Some traffic lights and businesses were operational due to solar panels or power generators.

“The SEN (electrical grid) going dark should not be considered normal,” said Arian Mendoza, 28, an engineer living in Havana. “I don’t think it’s right.”

The outage briefly took Cuban state TV off the air. Its 1 p.m. national news broadcast started more than half an hour after the normal air time, with a presenter explaining the delay was due to the blackout.

“We can’t communicate, we don’t know what’s on the news because we can’t turn on the TV,” said Angeli Aviles, 18, a student in Havana.

The Felton 1 thermoelectric power plant, located in Holguin province in eastern Cuba, remained online, Cuba’s energy ministry said.

The fuel scarcity has caused Cuba’s government to ration key services, such as trash collection and transportation. Some residents have installed solar panels on homes and vehicles to keep power running amid soaring fuel prices.

Mexico, an alternate supplier to Venezuela, said it would halt supplies after the U.S. threatened tariffs on countries supplying Cuba with oil.

(Reporting by Annett Rios, Alien Fernandez and Daniel Trotta in Havana, Sandra Gaillard in Buenos Aires and Sarah Morland in Mexico City; Editing by Brendan O’Boyle, Daina Beth Solomon and Chris Reese)