[GEO.TV] Cuba remained largely without power on Saturday morning after the island's grid collapsed the night before, knocking out electricity for 10 million people and raising fresh questions about the viability of its antiquated generating system.
At sunrise, the island's grid operator UNE said it was generating only a trickle of electricity — around 225 MW, or less than 10% of total demand, enough to cover some vital services like hospitals, water supply and food production centres.
Officials said they had begun the process of firing up the country's decades-old generation plants, but gave no timeline for restoring service.
Cuba's grid failed Friday evening around 8:15pm (0015 GMT) after an aging component of a transmission line at a substation in Havana shorted, beginning a chain reaction that completely shut down power generation across the island, UNE officials said.
The grid collapse follows a string of nationwide blackouts late last year that plunged Cuba's frail power generating system into near-total disarray, stressed by fuel shortages, natural disaster and economic crisis.
Most Cubans outside the capital Havana have already been living for months with rolling blackouts that peaked at 20 hours a day in recent weeks. |