Cuba's Power Grid Collapses, Leaving Millions Without Electricity

The collapse was not an isolated failure. Cuba's electricity infrastructure is ageing and crumbling, while the fuel needed to run it has grown steadily scarcer. The island depends heavily on imported oil, and supplies have tightened sharply over the past year. Accounts differ on how often the system has given way: the BBC described Friday's outage as at least the sixth partial or total blackout of 2026, while Fox News counted it as the seventh. The US Embassy described the island’s grid as "increasingly unstable". Even between nationwide failures, Cubans endure scheduled daily power cuts, and the embassy said additional outages were occurring "more frequently and for longer periods".

For ordinary Cubans, the outages have reshaped daily life. Shortages of food and medicine have deepened, hospitals struggle to operate normally, and schools and government offices have repeatedly closed. "Lately, it's becoming a habit," Havana resident Frank Lorenzo told the news agency Reuters, describing a previous 24-hour outage followed by a single hour of power before the lights failed again. Lidia Fernandez, a 36-year-old schoolteacher, told the news agency AFP (Agence France-Presse): "It's one thing after another: no water, no gas for cooking, no electricity. Honestly, I don't know how we haven't gone crazy." Francisco Rodriguez, 78, said he had already spent 28 hours without power and expected to remain in darkness for several days. The repeated failures have prompted rare public protests, unusual in a country where unauthorised demonstrations are illegal and participants risk imprisonment.