Cuba reconnects electrical grid, restores power to much of Havana after island-wide outage

Cuba reconnected its national electrical grid and restored power to most of the capital Havana late on Sunday, energy officials said, nearly two days after an island-wide outage knocked out power to 10 million people.

Havana’s electric company said late on Sunday that around two-thirds of its clients in the city had seen power restored and said that number would increase overnight.

Cheers could be heard in neighbourhoods across the city as the lights flickered on after two days without electricity.

The government is pushing to develop large solar farms with help from China in a bid to reduce dependence on antiquated oil-fired generation.

Cuba’s grid collapsed on Friday evening after a transmission line at a substation in Havana shorted, beginning a chain reaction that completely shut down power generation across the island.

Most of Havana – densely populated and a major tourism centre – had gone without power since then, paralysing commerce, closing most restaurants and blacking out street and traffic lights across the city of two million people.