A whole country without electricity.. What's the story?

Arab Weather - State media reported that Cuba's electricity grid collapsed again early Saturday morning, causing the entire country to go out of power for the second time in a few hours after authorities announced the start of service restoration.

Cuba's electricity grid operator UNE announced at 6:15 a.m. local time a "total blackout" across the country, the state-run newspaper Cuba Debate reported. The company said in a short message that it was working to restore service through the electricity union.

The power grid first went down around midday Friday after a malfunction at one of the country’s largest power plants left more than 10 million people without power. By late Friday, power was beginning to return to parts of Cuba, offering some hope that full service could be restored.

So far, the network operator has not provided any details about why it went down again today or how long it will take to restore service.

Factors contributing to the crisis

The Cuban government blames deteriorating infrastructure, fuel shortages and high demand for weeks of power outages that have lasted between 10 and 20 hours a day. The government also says the U.S. trade embargo, along with sanctions imposed by former U.S. President Donald Trump, has caused ongoing difficulties in obtaining fuel and spare parts needed to operate and maintain oil-fired power plants.

In a related context, the United States denied on Friday any role in the collapse of the electricity grid in Cuba, reflecting the ongoing tensions between the two countries.

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