Havana (AFP)
Cuba remained without electricity on Saturday as a nationwide power outage dragged on for a second day.
At dawn, most neighborhoods in Havana were dark, except for hotels and hospitals with emergency generators and the very few private homes with that kind of backup in this economically challenged island nation that has grown accustomed to periodic power outages.
The capital Havana came to a virtual standstill on Friday at midday as schools closed, public transport ground to a halt and traffic lights stopped functioning.
The power grid collapsed in a chain reaction due to the unexpected shutdown of the Antonio Guiteras power plant, the biggest of the island's eight decrepit coal-fired power plants, said the head of electricity supply at the energy ministry, Lazaro Guerra.
The national electric utility UNE said that on Friday night it had managed to generate a minimal amount of power to get those plants running again and start to bring things back to normal.
But at 6:15am "a new, total disconnection of the electrical grid occurred," said the official news outlet Cubadebate.
The blackout followed weeks of power outages, lasting up to 20 hours a day in some provinces, which prompted Prime Minister Manuel Marrero on Thursday to declare an "energy emergency."
The government on Thursday suspended all nonessential public services in order to prioritise electricity supply to homes.
Schools across the country have now been closed until Monday. Authorities in Havana said hospitals and other essential facilities, which are powered by generators, would remain open.
For three months, Cubans have been battling chronic blackouts as they became longer and more frequent.
President Miguel Diaz-Canel said on X Friday that the government would "not rest" until the lights were back on.
Worst crisis in 30 years
The island is also feeling the aftershocks of the Covid-19 pandemic battering its critical tourism sector, and of economic mismanagement.
To bolster its grid, Cuba has leased seven floating power plants from Turkish companies and also added many small diesel-powered generators.