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Cuba restores power to Havana, the capital and its outlying provinces

Cuba restores power to Havana, the capital and its outlying provinces

Cuba's Havana capital saw some lights come back on on Sunday morning after a national grid collapse knocked out electricity for 10 million people.

Havana's Electric Company said on social media about 19% of their clients in the city have seen power restored but did not give an estimate for full recovery.

Cuba's Energy and Mines Ministry announced early Sunday that it had started up the Felton power station, one of Cuba's largest power plants and a benchmark for the restoration of power in eastern provinces. The ministry stated that the country's biggest plant, Antonio Guinteras in Matanzas was not yet operational.

Many residents in Havana, and elsewhere, were worried that their frozen food would spoil after 36 hours of no electricity.

Since Friday evening, around 8:15 pm (0015 GMT), a large part of the two-million-person city - a densely-populated tourist center - was without electricity.

The only places that had lights were popular tourist hotels, restaurants, homes, and businesses equipped with generators.

Cuba's grid collapsed Friday evening, after a transmission cable at a Havana substation shorted. This caused a chain reaction which completely shut down electricity generation on the entire island.

The blackout on Friday was the fourth to occur in the country since October.

Cuba's oil fired power plants, which were already outdated and struggled to keep the lights lit, reached a crisis last year when oil imports from Venezuela and Russia, as well as Mexico, decreased.

Before Friday's grid failure, many on the island were already experiencing daily blackouts of 20 hours or longer.

Cuba has blamed the growing crisis on an embargo imposed by the United States during the Cold War and on new restrictions imposed by President Donald Trump. Trump recently tightened the sanctions against the communist government and promised to restore "tough" policies toward the longtime U.S. enemy.

In an effort to reduce reliance on oil-fired power generation, the government wants to help China develop large solar farms. (Reporting and editing by David Holmes; Dave Sherwood)

(source: Reuters)