Cuba is bringing electricity back online after the national grid suffered a total collapse on July 6, marking the island's third system-wide failure this year and the eighth since late 2024.
By Tuesday, roughly 28 hours after the outage, partial service had been restored from Pinar del Río through Holguín, with about 65 percent of Havana's customers reconnected, state utility UNE reported. At the height of the blackout, the utility could cover just one percent of demand in the capital. Officials said restarting the Felton thermoelectric plant in Holguín is essential to reconnect the eastern provinces of Santiago de Cuba, Granma, and Guantánamo.
The energy crisis has intensified since Washington imposed an oil blockade in January, which curtailed fuel imports for Cuba's power stations. Cuba needs over 100,000 barrels of oil daily yet produces roughly 40,000. Only a single Russian tanker, carrying 100,000 tonnes of crude, reached the island in April. The United States also levied sanctions on Cuba's president in June, tightening economic pressure further.