Cuba has been plunged into darkness for the second time in just five days after another nationwide power outage struck the island, highlighting the country's worsening energy crisis and the fragile state of its electricity grid.

Officials from Cuba's state-run Electric Union said the latest blackout was triggered by a failure on a key transmission line between the central provinces of Santa Clara and Sancti Spíritus, causing the national grid to collapse. The outage left millions of residents without electricity, disrupted essential services and forced businesses to close as engineers raced to restore power.

Image: Getty Images

The latest failure comes only days after another island-wide blackout, marking the fourth major nationwide grid collapse of 2026. Cuba has struggled for months with severe fuel shortages, aging power infrastructure and difficulties maintaining electricity generation, leading to increasingly frequent and prolonged outages across the country.

Prime Minister Manuel Marrero blamed the continuing crisis on fuel shortages and external economic pressures, while officials said restoration efforts had begun using smaller regional power systems before reconnecting them to the national grid. However, many residents have become increasingly frustrated after enduring repeated blackouts that have disrupted daily life, spoiled food supplies and made it difficult for businesses to operate.

The country's electricity network has been under immense strain, with authorities warning that Cuba is currently producing only a fraction of the fuel needed to meet national demand. Rolling blackouts have become a daily reality in many regions, while public transport and other essential services have also been affected.

As engineers continue working to restore power across the island, the repeated nationwide outages have intensified concerns about the resilience of Cuba's aging energy infrastructure and the growing economic challenges facing the country. With no immediate long-term solution in sight, millions of Cubans are bracing for further disruption in the weeks ahead.