Cuba’s Energy Crisis: 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 drawback. On a mean day, the Cuban authorities can meet solely 50 to 70 p.c of its nation’s electrical energy wants. On prime of that, Cuba’s complete grid has collapsed 4 instances 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 big breakdown in primary companies, such because the storage of contemporary merchandise, primary meals preparation, public lighting, and entry to companies. This has compelled residents to take extraordinary measures, like cooking a number of meals directly 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 complicated 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 house nation get right here?

Cuba’s Power Infrastructure Disaster

Cuba’s grid infrastructure is so weak that run-of-the-mill problems like transmission line failures and generator journeys are inflicting widespread outages. The surprising shutdown of the Antonio Guiteras oil-fired energy plant began the full blackout in October 2024. Healthy 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 However Cuba’s outdated safety methods couldn’t detect the faults, and there weren’t sufficient spinning reserves to compensate for the technology instability, making restoration not possible.

Underlying the blackouts are three systemic issues: years of insufficient funding, substandard gasoline, and deferred upkeep. Cuba’s getting old thermal energy vegetation—the spine of the system, almost all of which run on crude oil or gasoline oil—have gotten much less dependable, and should function nicely beneath capability due to gasoline 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 substitute components to restore it. Different amenities have been hit with adversarial occasions, such the 2022 fires on the Lidio Ramón Pérez (Felton) and Máximo Gómez (Mariel) thermal vegetation. In the course of the first 5 months of 2025, solely 34 p.c of the capability of all of Cuba’s power plants, primarily based on 2023 numbers, was accessible on a mean 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 wear and tear and tear on boilers, generators, and pipes in Cuba’s energy vegetation, 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 exterior oil supply much less dependable, with shipments dwindling lately.

To assist compensate for energy deficits, Cuba in 2019 began renting floating thermal energy vegetation from different international locations corresponding to Turkey’s Karpowership. By 2023, eight of those sorts of ships had 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 hassle paying the excessive leasing costs, so the ships’ operators withdrew from Cuba’s waters, taking a whole bunch of megawatts with them.

Cuba’s Renewable Power 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 probably sugarcane biomass. However the transition to renewables has progressed slowly and considerably haphazardly, regardless of formidable targets set by the federal government.

Essential renewable energy projects usually get delayed attributable to bureaucratic hurdles and an absence of funding. The instability of the grid makes it tougher to combine large-scale renewable power installations, as they require secure connections to operate successfully. And whereas the nation actively seeks solar energy, it’s overlooking its once-thriving sugar sector, and the biomass and ethanol assets that include it.

The Cuban authorities’s puzzling determination to speculate closely in constructing costly lodges and enhancing tourism infrastructure whereas neglecting mandatory grid updates has additionally made the system extra weak. From 2010 and 2024, Cuba spent about 32 p.c of complete funding on tourism-related infrastructure, and solely 12 p.c on power infrastructure, based on Cuba’s Nationwide Statistics Workplace.

Cuba’s economic system is in a poor state because of the 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 mandatory laborious forex to import gasoline, purchase the spare components it wants, entry the newest expertise, and appeal to vital 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 putting public ceremony. Each morning, normally between 7:00 and eight:00, officers overtly declare the anticipated electricity generation shortfall. Then, provincial leaders throughout the island painstakingly select which of their communities will lose energy and for the way lengthy—on common 19 hours, and a few over 24 hours.

Blackouts for these “interruptible circuits,” as provincial electrical firms seek advice from them, are speculated 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 supposed. And with sure companies and companies being prioritized for energy, a disproportionate share of the outages falls on a portion of shoppers.

Havana, the capital, will get partly shielded from this, attributable to 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 at the least 4 hours of energy outages every single day—a state of affairs that has worsened this 12 months.

In each town and the countryside, the ability outages and extended uncertainty have altered primary companies, economies, and each day life. Fridges lose their cooling energy, ruining helpful meals that was bought at a excessive worth. Companies should shut, leading to misplaced income and productiveness. College students wrestle to review when their telephone batteries are low, partly as a result of they use their telephones as flashlights. Some medical amenities have backup turbines, however they’re not all the time operational attributable to an absence of spare components. Internet 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 recovery plans. These embody investing in thermal plant upkeep, including new capability, including photo voltaic power, and securing gasoline provides from overseas. Nevertheless, progress is gradual and restricted by the identical issues that brought on the disaster within the first place.

To repair the thermal items, it’s crucial to carry main electrical energy suppliers, corresponding to Guiteras and Cienfuegos, again to a state the place they will function reliably once more. Nevertheless, this methodology 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 present accessible.

There are insurance policies in place that encourage rooftop solar, 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 initiatives for wind farms are underway.

Angel Rodriguez makes use of a transformer from an outdated television to cost a battery in preparation for blackouts at his house within the Bahia neighborhood of Havana on 26 Could 2025.Ramon Espinosa/AP

However growth lacks scale and pace. Giant initiatives usually wrestle with monetary constraints and insufficient planning. The federal government set a aim of deriving 37 p.c of Cuba’s power from renewable sources by 2030; up to now they’ve reached solely 3 p.c.

Cuba is actively trying to companion internationally on power initiatives. Agreements with Russia primarily deal with modernizing present thermal amenities and probably setting up new ones. Mexico and different allies have additionally helped by sending gasoline provides.

Talks with potential buyers for inexperienced initiatives 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 firms, 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, based on the Cuban authorities.

As the first power 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 turn out to be a part of town’s soundscape. Some communities are working collectively to put in photo voltaic and battery methods. For instance, a farmers’ cooperative in Artemisa powers its processing and irrigation amenities this manner. These examples present a vital, bottom-up change, however they’re few and much between due to prohibitive upfront prices.

Cuba’s persons are struggling as a result of the power system is being pushed too far. And the great adjustments required for real, long-term restoration are at present past the island’s capabilities. The lights got here again on after every main blackout, however the specter of the following one looms always.