Cuba’s national grid collapsed on 18 October 2024, leaving 10 million people without electricity. Many Cubans have reported that they are struggling without electrical power and are starting to lose food, which is already scarce. This crisis highlights not only the precarious state of the country’s infrastructure and economy but also questions Cuba’s one-party communist government’s efficiency when dealing with critical public services and the urgent needs of its citizens.

Such an electrical emergency started on 17 October 2024, at night, when 50% of the island suffered from a lack of electricity. The situation got worse Friday morning with the total collapse of the national energy system caused by a breakdown at Antonio Guiteras, one of the country’s largest power plants, in the western province of Matanzas.

Reuters reports that the collapse is attributed to the fact that “Cuba’s electrical grid and oil-fired power plants are obsolete and crumbling.” These facilities were built decades ago and are inadequately maintained, undermining the well-functioning national electricity grid. Such an energy crisis is a reflection of months of constant power outages across the country, aggravated by fuel shortages that have affected the operation of power plants in Cuba.

It is important to highlight that the crude oil produced by the island is not enough to cover its domestic consumption, which makes Cuba highly dependent on imports, mainly from Venezuela and Mexico, to ensure adequate generation. Recently, Venezuela has cut fuel shipments to Cuba by half this year as the country struggles to secure domestic supplies. Similarly, both Russia and Mexico have also reduced their exports to Cuba, compelling the financially strained government to seek out more expensive fuel on the spot market. Such reductions make the current situation even more critical, as they sum up the lack of fuel with the failures in thermoelectric plants in the country.

In response, the Cuban government suspended all non-essential state work activities, affecting both the agendas of ministers and schools, in an attempt to recover electricity service. President Miguel Díaz-Canel said there would be “no rest” until electricity supplies are restored to the island, describing the situation as “tense and complex”.

In the meanwhile, thousands of Cubans across the island expressed their concerns while they struggled with the lack of energy.

“We had a really bad time, without electricity, our food went bad, on Sunday I had to take out all the chicken to distribute it to the neighbors, Yadis Bruzón, a 45-year-old employee and mother of twins, told the Associated Press.

“We didn’t know how long the blackout would last,” said Jorge Vélez, a 48-year-old state worker. “Of course there will be another blackout, maybe not on the entire island like this one, but for two or three hours like they were doing. There is no oil.”

The blackout also increased concerns related to Cubans’ health, as it led to soaring levels of mosquito-borne illness in the humid Caribbean climate. Thousands of Cubans were also left without water, in part due to power outages that severely disrupted the water supply and infrastructure.

Only on Tuesday, 22 October 2024, Cuba’s electric state-owned company, Unión Eléctrica (U.N.E.), reported that it had already managed to complete the re-connection of the entire country to the National Electric System, four days after the total blackout that the island suffered Friday. This was considered one of the worst electrical crises in the country in years. Despite the completed re-connection, the system remains weak, which increases concerns among Cubans that energy shortages will become as present as before when there were already power outages of up to eight hours a day in some places.

The problem in Cuba is far from being completely solved. The lack of investment and maintenance in the country’s electrical infrastructure makes it difficult to prevent blackouts like this from happening again in the future. This situation arises not only from broader economic mismanagement, highlighting the one-party communist system’s failure to effectively address its citizens’ needs but also from the complex dynamics of U.S.-Cuba relations, which have long affected the island.

The authorities acknowledged that two main causes of the problems are the lack of fuel to feed the generating plants and the frequent breakdowns in the old thermoelectric plants with more than 30 years of operation. Both explanations can be linked to the sanctions of the United States, which intensified its policy by pressuring to achieve a change in the political model on the island. Even though the United States denies any role in the recent grid collapse, it is important to highlight the sanctions imposed complicate the financing of fuel purchases and the acquisition of spare parts for Cuba.

The use of sanctions is often debated in international relations as a strategy that has the potential to create more problems than solutions. While sanctions can pressure the government of a country to change, they can also create more economic hardships that will affect its population directly, which can be seen now in the case of Cuba.

“Some 41 countries and several international organizations have expressed their solidarity with Cuba, which is facing the simultaneous impacts of a cyclone and an energy emergency, with admirable resilience,” the Cuban president expressed on his X account, formerly Twitter. “The US declares that we have not asked for anything. Here is our demand: #TumbaElBloqueo (eliminate the embargo),” he added.

Reuters highlighted that Cuba’s government has also acknowledged its shortcomings. The country has been dealing with widespread corruption, bureaucracy challenges, and significant inefficiencies, which left the government with no surplus funds to update its electrical grid.

Investment in renewable energy commonly appears as a solution for problems involving a shortage of fossil fuels. By developing solar, wind, and other renewable energy sources, Cuba can reduce its dependency on imported fuels, gaining a higher level of control over its energy supply.

Cuba’s government has announced the initiation of a long-term plan aiming at increasing the share of electricity generated from renewable sources, primarily solar, due to its significant potential. Additionally, the government says it is also investing in boosting domestic crude oil production so it can reduce its reliance on imports.

However, it is challenging to talk about investing in renewable energy when the country continues to face a critical economic crisis, which significantly affects people’s lives on the island.

“There will be no change in the electricity sector until the government changes the economic model (…) Even then, it will take years; this process cannot happen overnight.,” says Jorge Piñón, the director of the Energy Program for Latin America and the Caribbean at the University of Texas.

By increasing diplomatic efforts, Cuba could slowly work to relieve U.S. sanctions, alleviating the financial constraints that harm the country’s ability to invest in infrastructure improvements.  However, as long as the island remains under a non-democratic regime and with high levels of corruption, it will be hard to implement the necessary reforms to ensure that the needs of Cuban citizens are being met. Therefore, it is vital to address Cuba’s political issues in its roots, so the government can then address the economic and infrastructure problems regarding its national grid and provide a certain stability to its citizens.