Cuba on Monday suffered its third nationwide power outage since the start of the year, the state electricity company said — the outage is part of an escalating crisis that has left residents without basic services, including electricity, clean water, and internet access.

Blackouts Intensify Amid Fuel Shortages

The impoverished island was already struggling to keep the lights on before the U.S. president, Donald Trump, imposed an oil blockade in January, which has depleted the already dwindling supply of fuel for Cuba’s power plants. “There has been a total disconnection from the national electricity generation system,” the UNE power utility wrote on X, adding that it was investigating the causes.

“Living like this is agony. ” said Meyboll Font, a 51-year-old self-employed social media community manager. Font said that her Havana neighborhood has been surviving on just “three or four hours of power a day” but that the blackout was worse because “you never know when it (electricity) will return.”

“We have no wifi, no electricity, we can’t work,” said a young software programmer working for a tourism startup in another neighborhood. The blackout is the eighth on the island of 9.6 million people since late 2024.

Power Cuts Extend for Days at a Time

The state has imposed increasingly severe power cuts across the country, over 24 hours at a stretch in parts of Havana and over 70 hours in some rural areas — in an increasingly desperate attempt to conserve fuel. Power outages have been a feature of life for years on the communist-run island, where the electricity generation system, composed mainly of ageing Soviet-era plants, is in shambles.

The pace of blackouts has accelerated since the fuel blockade began, however, with authorities citing a lack of fuel to run the generators that support the creaking national grid. Since January, Washington has only allowed one oil tanker, from Russia, to dock in Cuba.

Food, drinking water, and medicine are in increasingly short supply, prompting the UN to warn of a humanitarian emergency. The blockade, coupled with a flurry of sanctions on the Cuban state and foreign companies that do business with it, have tipped the country closer to the brink of collapse.

Renewables Fall Short in Crisis

The government has invested heavily in solar energy to try to alleviate the electricity shortages, but solar power, while increasing, still represents just 10% of the energy mix. The reliance on solar energy has not been enough to offset the growing gaps in supply, particularly as the country struggles to maintain and expand its renewable infrastructure amid economic constraints.

Residents have expressed frustration and despair over the worsening conditions. “This isn’t just about the lights going out,” said Font. “It’s about being unable to work, to study, to cook, everything is affected.”

With the government unable to secure enough fuel to operate its aging power plants and the U.S. blockade limiting access to alternative energy sources, the island nation continues to face a deepening energy and humanitarian crisis.