Cuban authorities announced on Saturday that power restoration efforts are underway following a significant outage caused by the failure of a major power plant, which left millions in the dark for nearly two days.

Vicente de la O Levy, the energy minister, reported that by early Saturday morning, the electrical grid had regained approximately 500 megawatts of energy. He shared on X that several substations in the western region of the island had been re-energized.

O Levy further noted that two thermoelectric plants are operational again, with the expectation that two additional plants will come back online shortly. The outage was instigated by a major failure at the Antonio Guiteras power plant on Friday, which disrupted the entire national power system. The status of other power plants on the island remains uncertain.

No official timeline has been provided for when the blackout will completely end. This event marks an all-time low for power supply in Cuba, a nation accustomed to power outages amid severe economic challenges. The extent of the collapse has been likened to previous incidents that occurred during significant hurricanes, such as one that struck in 2022.

In response to the crisis, the Cuban government has implemented emergency measures aimed at reducing electricity consumption. These actions include suspending school classes, closing certain state-run businesses, and halting nonessential services. Officials reported that about 1.64 gigawatts of power were lost during peak demand hours, amounting to nearly half of the total electricity requirement at that time.

Local reports indicate that the initial stages of the outage began on Thursday, driven by increased energy usage from small and medium enterprises and residential air conditioning units. The situation deteriorated further due to malfunctions in aging thermoelectric plants, which have suffered from inadequate maintenance and insufficient fuel supplies.

Additionally, the government is considering adjustments to electricity pricing for small and medium-sized businesses, which have expanded since being permitted by the communist administration in 2021.