Cuba still largely without power after nationwide grid collapse

The Star

Cuba remained largely without power on Saturday (March 15) morning after the island´s grid collapsed the night before, knocking out electricity for 10 million people and raising fresh questions about the viability of its antiquated generating system.   Read more at https://tinyurl.com/yhrkd7r2  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

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00:00As night fell on Saturday, much of Havana remained without power following a massive

00:09collapse of Cuba's electric grid the night before, leaving 10 million people in the dark

00:14and raising fresh concerns about the reliability of the country's aging power infrastructure.

00:20Cuba's grid operator, UNE, reported that the failure occurred around 8.15 p.m. local

00:27time on Friday when an aging component of a transmission line at a Havana substation

00:33shorted, triggering a chain reaction that shut down power generation across the island.

00:39At present, UNE is generating only a fraction of the country's electricity,

00:44about 225 megawatts or less than 10 percent of total demand, just enough to sustain essential

00:51services such as hospitals, water supply, and food production centers.

00:56The outage follows a series of nationwide blackouts late last year

01:01that pushed Cuba's fragile power system to the brink, exacerbated by fuel shortages,

01:07natural disasters, and economic hardship. Officials stated on Saturday morning that

01:13efforts were underway to restart the country's aging power plants,

01:17but no timeline was given for full restoration.

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