Story thread · 3 reports / 2 sources

Cuba reports regional blackout in the west of the country

nbcmiami.com · 9dShare

Western Cuba suffered a regional blackout on Saturday that affected several provinces, including Havana, the country’s capital and the largest city in the Caribbean nation, authorities said. This disconnection from the National Electric System (SEN) adds to several episodes of nationwide and regional collapses this year amid a severe crisis caused by an energy squeeze imposed by the United States. A statement from Cuba’s Electric Union posted on its social media said that, in the afternoon, a simultaneous outage of the 220-kilovolt lines from Matanzas to Cienfuegos and from Matanzas to Santa Clara caused “the division of the SEN and subsequently the collapse of the western zone.” “Pinar del Río, Artemisa, Mayabeque, Havana and Matanzas were left without service,” the statement said. It did not indicate how long it would take to restore the grid. Havana, the country’s capital, has 1.6 million residents. Cuba Jul 7 Islandwide blackout hits Cuba as its fuel reserve dwindles and aging grid

First report: A Neighborhood in Matanzas, Cuba, Three Years Later — havanatimes.org, 12d