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Cuba struggles to restore electricity to millions of Cubans as the night falls

Cuba's capital Havana was plunged into darkness on Saturday for the second time as attempts to restore power continued in fits and start. Setbacks slowed progress, and several millions still remain without electricity throughout the island.

Cuba's grid collapsed Friday evening, after a transmission cable at a Havana substation shorted. This caused a chain reaction, which shut down all power generation on the island.

Early efforts were focused on providing electricity to vital services such as hospitals, water supplies and food production centres.

By early Saturday evening, however, neither of Cuba’s two largest electricity plants, Felton in Holguin Province, nor Antonio Guiteras in Matanzas, was producing electricity. This left the majority of homes on the island in the dark.

Lazaro Guerra said that the top official of the country in charge of electricity hoped to see both power plants come online over night, but cautioned that progress will be slow so as not to cause further setbacks.

During the day Saturday, the grid operator had to start over in both the island's largest cities: Havana in the west and Santiago de Cuba in the east.

The latest islandwide power grid collapse in Cuba comes after a series of nationwide blackouts that occurred late last year, which threw the fragile power generation system into near total disarray. Fuel shortages, natural catastrophes and economic crises all contributed to this.

Since months, most Cubans living outside Havana are experiencing rolling blackouts. These have peaked to 20 hours per day in the last few weeks.

A few hotels in Havana used generators on Saturday night to keep lights on for tourists. The street lights and stop signs on major boulevards, as well as residential areas and many bars and restaurants were all blacked out.

According to the transportation ministry, flights into and out of airports in the country, as well bus travel, were not affected by the grid failure.

Cubans are suffering from severe shortages in food, medicine and fuel, as well as daily blackouts that last for hours.

It's difficult to keep food cool without electricity," Lazaro Hernandez said, a Havana cafeteria employee who was searching his neighborhood for ice in order to keep ham and cheese chilled overnight.

We don't know for how long we will be without power.

Cuba's economic problems are attributed to a Cold War U.S. embargo on trade, as well as a complex web of laws and regulations which complicate financial transactions. It also blames the difficulty in acquiring essentials such fuel and spare parts.

Donald Trump, the U.S. president, tightened sanctions against the communist-run island government and promised to restore "tough" policies toward this longtime U.S. enemy.

Cuba has, with China's help, invested heavily over the last year to develop large, state run solar farms. It says this will reduce the country's dependence on expensive and difficult-to-source fuels.

Many Cubans like Victor Raul Bracho a Havana-based musician who was practicing for a Saturday recording session, continued to live their lives as usual despite the blackout.

It's not as if we are getting used to the problems. We have to move on. Reporting by Dave Sherwood, with additional reporting from Nelson Acosta; Mario Fuentes, Anett Rios, Alien Fernandez; Susan Fenton, and Lincoln Feast.

(source: Reuters)