HAVANA — Cuba's national power grid collapsed on Friday, September 18, 2026, causing a nationwide blackout. The Ministry of Energy and Mines announced the islandwide power outage on its official X account.

Grid operator UNE said the outage started just before 14:00 local time on Friday due to a transmission fault coupled with poor weather conditions in central Cuba. A failure occurred in transmission lines in the western part of the country, causing the system to collapse in that area as far as Matanzas province. The eastern section of the island was subsequently disconnected from the grid.

The official newspaper It was reported that unstable weather conditions further aggravated the grid's situation. Officials began activating service-restoration protocols following the collapse. Small power-distribution micro-islands were being established in the provinces of Camagüey, Pinar del Río, and Granma. Some systems serving hospitals and other emergency facilities were being reactivated.

By dusk, power had been restored to 5% of users in Havana. Havana has a total of about 862,000 electricity customers. Union Electrica (UNE) said nearly half of its customers in Havana had regained power on Saturday. UNE posted on social media that the re-establishing of power is being done gradually as conditions permit.

This is at least the sixth nationwide power grid collapse in Cuba this year. The two most recent nationwide blackouts occurred in early August, following others in July and March. Power grid collapses have become increasingly common over the past two years due to severe economic crisis.

Even when the national power grid is working, Cubans regularly endure outages lasting more than 30 consecutive hours. Cuba’s Electric Union reported a deficit of just shy of 2,000 megawatts on September 16.

Blackouts worsened since January after the United States imposed an energy blockade aimed at forcing a change in Cuba's political system. President Trump signed an executive order imposing tariffs on countries that sell or provide oil to Cuba. U.S. restrictions prevent Cuba from importing fuel needed to operate thermoelectric power plants and replacement parts for infrastructure maintenance. Only one tanker of fuel has been delivered to Cuba since January, by a Russian tanker in March.

Havana blamed its fuel crisis on the Trump administration and denounced all of its sanctions, including a new round announced in August. Washington attributes Cuba's energy crisis to poor internal management and has accused it of posing a national security threat. Secretary of State Marco Rubio emphasized the U.S. prefers a diplomatic option for a transition to a new government led by technocrats willing to make economic reforms. The diplomatic process for transition in Cuba has stalled despite pressure from the Trump administration.

The Trump administration examined options for possible military action against Cuba, including an Army-led air assault. Officials stated that military briefings were not an indication that President Trump or the Pentagon have decided to carry out an operation. Ernesto Soberón Guzman, the Cuban ambassador to the United Nations, called the outages a "collective punishment" in a conversation last month. United Nations human rights experts condemned the U.S. oil blockade, calling it a violation of international law and warning that Cuba risks becoming a silent Gaza.

The blackouts have led to transportation limitations, reduced work hours, flight cancellations, and serious public health consequences. Food and medicine have become more scarce, with hospitals struggling to function normally and schools and government offices having to close. Power outages affect basic activities such as cooking, water supply, and internet and telephone service. Repeated blackouts have prompted rare protests in Cuba, where unauthorized demonstrations are illegal and those who defy the ban risk being jailed.

"No one can stand these constant blackouts. There isn’t enough food, there’s no water, there’s no electricity — you have no idea," worker Mercedes Rodriguez said. "The country is in such a sad state, and there are no words for what we're going through."

Timeline

The Juraguá plant was decommissioned in 1992, three years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, before ever becoming operational. Venezuela was believed to have sent Cuba around 35,000 barrels of oil a day until Venezuela's supplies were cut off following the U.S. seizure of President Nicolás Maduro in January.

What's New

Later reporting included statements from residents regarding the frequency of outages. "Lately, it's becoming a habit. Before it happened less frequently - once a month… just yesterday we were 24 hours without electricity, they turned it on for just an hour and it went down again," resident Frank Lorenzo said. Schoolteacher Lidia Fernandez added, "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."

The latest blackout first affected five of Cuba’s eastern provinces, including Havana, before spreading across the whole island. A study titled "Energy System Planning towards Renewable Power System: Energy Matrix Change in Cuba by 2030" was published in 2018 in IFAC-PapersOnLine.

Why It Matters

This event marks the sixth nationwide power grid collapse in Cuba this year, indicating a pattern of increasing frequency over the past two years due to severe economic crisis. The blackouts have led to transportation limitations, reduced work hours, flight cancellations, and serious public health consequences, affecting basic activities such as cooking, water supply, and internet and telephone service.

The situation has drawn international attention, with United Nations human rights experts condemning the U.S. oil blockade and Cuban officials describing the outages as collective punishment.