HAVANA — The electricity went out Friday in Cuba, affecting the entire island's population of 10 million after one of its main power plants failed, according to Cuba’s energy ministry.
On Friday evening, authorities announced power had been restored to about 20,000 residents of the capital, Havana, which has a population of 2 million.
Power outages have been chronic in Cuba for years and have worsened in recent months.
But the situation was so critical in the past three days that the government took measures to keep the lights on.
On Thursday night, it announced schools would close and most state workers would stay home Friday in an effort to conserve energy.
But it wasn’t enough and by 11 a.m. Friday, Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric, the largest power plant, went offline causing a grid failure.
Authorities said they did not know how long it would take to re-establish power to the entire island. »