Cuba has suffered another blackout that temporarily knocked out power to the western side of the Caribbean island, a region that includes the capital Havana.

The country’s Ministry of Energy and Mines announced on Wednesday that the blackout began around 5am local time (10:00 GMT). It then declared all systems restored at around 1:26pm (18:26 GMT).

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For hours, millions of residents remained in the dark as the government worked to restore power to an area that spans from the westernmost province of Pinar del Rio to Mayabeque, just east of Havana.

Throughout the morning, officials sought to reassure the public that electricity would soon be restored.

“Following the power outage in western Cuba, the workers at [the Ministry of Energy and Mines] immediately began restoration efforts, which are already under way,” Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz wrote on social media.

“We are aware of their extraordinary efforts to achieve this as quickly as possible.”

But power outages have been a regular source of consternation in Cuba — and a symptom of its crumbling electrical grid.

In 2024 alone, at least five major power grid failures disrupted life on the island, sparking rare protests against the government in cities like Santiago de Cuba.

The trend of repeated outages has continued into 2025, with a major blackout in September blamed on a malfunctioning thermoelectric plant.

Multiple pressures on grid

Cuba’s National Electric System (SEN) is ageing. Much of the power grid is considered outdated, with a heavy reliance on fossil fuels from sources like Venezuela.

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Most of the infrastructure also dates to the Cold War era. It saw a leap in construction in the 1980s, and by 1989, the grid was expanded to reach 95 percent of all households.

In recent years, Cuba has invested in renewable energy as an alternative to its current energy production model.

In April 2024, for instance, the Caribbean nation inked a deal with China to open 92 solar farms by 2028. The first of those solar plants opened in February of this year.

But natural disasters, particularly hurricanes, have posed continued hurdles to electricity distribution on the island.

In late September, for instance, Hurricane Imelda churned through the Caribbean Sea, bringing floods and landslides to Cuba, where at least two people died.

Then, in October, Cuba was struck again, this time by Hurricane Melissa, one of the most intense Atlantic storms on record.

The hurricane had slowed to a Category 3 storm by the time it made landfall in Cuba, but it nevertheless pounded the island with more flash floods, leaving homes destroyed and thousands displaced.

Cuban officials have also blamed the United States for contributing to the island’s limping infrastructure.

Since 1962, the US has placed Cuba under a wide-reaching embargo, which critics say has undermined the island’s economy.

Despite efforts to loosen the sanctions in recent decades, the administration of US President Donald Trump has kept the embargo in place, citing reports of human rights abuses under the Cuban government.

Nevertheless, in October, a majority vote at the United Nations General Assembly once again passed a non-binding resolution calling on the US to end its embargo, as part of an annual appeal.

The economic sanctions, the resolution argues, are disproportionately punitive.

President blames US ‘blockade’

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel on Wednesday cited that rationale, along with the toll of the recent storms, as challenges impeding the proper functioning of the electrical grid.

“The workers at [the Ministry of Energy and Mines], who never rest amidst the daily challenges imposed by the blockade and the recovery efforts following Hurricane Melissa, are already working to resolve the issue,” Diaz-Canel wrote. “Once again, we have faith in them.”

Since taking office in 2019, Diaz-Canel has faced significant pressure from the blackouts and the public unrest they cause.

In 2021, amid the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and shortages of basic supplies like fuel, thousands of Cubans took to the streets to protest deteriorating conditions on the island. Among their complaints were the regular blackouts the island faces.

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Those protests coincided with a record-setting mass exodus from Cuba. Estimates vary as to the island’s population, but government statistics indicate that, in 2021, the total number of residents was around 11,113,215.

As of 2024, that number has plummeted to 9,748,532. That suggests a steep population drop of more than 12 percent, much of which is attributed to migration off the island.

That decline corresponds to a spike in Cuban arrivals documented by the US Customs and Border Protection agency.

For fiscal year 2023, the agency reported 200,287 “encounters” with Cuban migrants attempting to enter the United States. For fiscal year 2024, that number rose to 217,615.

Under Trump, however, the US has this month suspended all immigration applications from Cuba and 18 other countries the Republican president has described as “third world”.