Cuba‘s efforts to restore electricity after a series of blackouts were hampered again on Monday when a second nationwide power cut in a day, the sixth this year, struck its national grid.
Power began returning to parts of Havana and several provinces in central and western Cuba during Monday and, by midday, authorities said about half of the capital had electricity again.
However, the state electricity provider later warned that unfavorable weather had again interrupted the restoration process.
Cuba blackouts: What have authorities said?
“In the process of reestablishing the [National Electric System], existing weather events caused disruptions to the grid, directly affecting the generator units that were online,” the provider said in a statement posted to social media on Monday afternoon, without specifying the extent of damage or how many areas were affected.
“We continue to work intensively to revert the situation and achieve the system reset as soon as possible.”
By early evening, authorities were reporting some progress, saying four generating units at Energas Jaruco were operating and several transmission substations around Havana had been re-energized.
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Cuba: Life amid blackouts
Repeated blackouts since the start of the year have disrupted businesses, public services and life in general across Cuba, a Caribbean island of roughly 10 million people.
Most Cubans now have power only for a few hours a day at best, making normal life nearly impossible.
The government, which is already battling shortages of food, fuel and medicine and a long economic downturn, blames decades of United States sanctions and embargoes which limit access to fuel, financing and spare parts needed to maintain its power system.
The Trump administration has this year tightened sanctions and enacted an oil embargo, further choking the Caribbean country.
Washington claims the outages reflect failures of the country’s state-run economic model.
Edited by: Rana Taha
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