As Cuba's nationwide blackout continues, a look at why the electrical grid collapsed

As Cuba’s electrical grid shut down Friday, leaving millions of Cubans without power nationwide hours after the government declared an “energy emergency,” authorities have not said when the lights will be back on.

What led to an entire island of 11 million people being left without electricity?

Here is a look at why the Caribbean island was suddenly left in the dark.

Crumbling equipment

Some of the major power plants in the country have been in operation for more than 50 years and have not received proper maintenance because the government did not have the money, said Jorge Piñón, director of the Latin America and Caribbean Energy Program at the University of Texas and an expert on Cuba’s energy grid.

Glen Sartain, managing director of West Monroe’s Energy & Utilities Consulting, added that “many of Cuba’s power plants are outdated and inefficient, frequently relying on oil and old technology that leads to regular breakdowns and reduced energy production capacity.”

That leaves the island’s aging electrical grid vulnerable “and prone to frequent blackouts, particularly in rural areas, making it difficult to distribute electricity efficiently across the country.”

The power plants also use oil extracted locally, with impurities that make regular maintenance even more important.

Cuban authorities have tried to apply “band-aids” here and there, but nothing short of significant investment will solve the problem, Piñón said.

The electrical grid is so fragile that when Hurricane Ian went over the western tip of the island in September 2022 it took out the country’s entire electrical system, plunging Cuba into darkness for days.

Less oil from Venezuela

Shipments to Cuba of Venezuelan oil and refined oil products have fallen considerably in recent months due to technical problems and the cash-strapped Caracas regime’s financial needs.

Venezuelan experts told the Miami Herald that the lion’s share of the nearly 500,000 barrels the South American country exports daily is being sent to China, to pay off the government’s massive loans from that country, and to the United States through U.S. oil company Chevron, which has a special license to operate in Venezuela despite U.S. sanctions imposed on the Nicolas Maduro regime.

While in the past Venezuela had prioritized oil shipments to Cuba over other commitments, the Caracas regime is currently striving to keep Beijing happy, while the Chevron oil sales provide a much-needed source of income, said Horacio Medina, a former executive with the Venezuelan oil company Petróleos de Venezuela, PDVSA.

According to the latest figures reported by Reuters, the shipment of Venezuelan oil and refined products to Cuba fell to about 22,000 barrels per day in September, less than half of the 55,000 averaged last year and sharply down from the 80,000 daily average in 2020.

Juan Fernández, a former PDVSA planning executive director, said the pronounced fall is partly due to Venezuela’s difficulty in processing refined oil products, which make up a significant portion of the shipments to Cuba. Venezuela is facing technical problems and blackouts affecting its own refineries, affecting the volume of fuel that would otherwise be shipped to Cuba, he said.

No money for fuel

Cuba needs about 120,000 barrels of oil daily to meet its domestic demand, according to Piñón’s estimates. Cuba produces around 40,000 barrels a day, and Mexico has been sending around 20,000, he said. When shipments from Venezuela fall, Cuba can only make up the shortfall by buying oil on the international market.

But the government is “bankrupt,” Cuban economist Omar Everleny Perez said Friday during a Cuba-focused event at Florida International University in which several economists discussed the island’s spiraling economic crisis.

Political alliances with Russia and China have not provided Cuba with hoped-for financial support. Yet the Cuban leadership, which blames the current economic crisis exclusively on decades-old U.S. sanctions, has resisted market reforms, limiting foreign investment and the growth of the private sector — and unstintingly sticking with the socialist-economy model.

“The old guard is resisting, thinking the model still might be fixed,” Perez said. “They do not know that the model no longer exists. There is nothing to improve, because the model no longer works.”

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