Displaying items by tag: power cuts

Cuba has had one of its toughest weeks in years, with a nationwide blackout leaving its ten million citizens powerless for days, alongside devastation from Hurricane Oscar. For many, energy shortages have become routine, but this prolonged blackout forced people to resort to firewood when regular gas supplies ran out. The government has blamed US sanctions for hampering infrastructure upgrades, while critics argue that mismanagement has directed funds to tourism instead of energy. President Miguel Diaz-Canel warned against protests, no doubt wishing to avoid a repetition of the widespread demonstrations over similar issues in 2021. The government suspended all non-essential work and schools for a week, to avoid another collapse on the grid. Electricity generation now meets only 60-70% of demand, and there has been a 25% production drop since 2019. Hurricane Oscar’s destruction further underscored the nation’s vulnerability, leaving Cubans braced for more challenges as the crisis continues.

Britain faces a greater risk of blackouts this winter after a fire on 15 September knocked out a cable importing electricity from France. National Grid’s electricity system operator (ESO) believes supply will meet demand, but has cut its forecast of buffer supply. Its officials are also warning of high costs for getting power generators to fire up at short notice to help balance the grid. Those costs are ultimately passed onto household bills - a further pressure when bills are climbing due to soaring wholesale costs of natural gas and electricity. The ESO warned in July that Britain should prepare for constrained power supplies over winter, with nuclear power plants shutting down and demand bouncing back from the pandemic. Its director said, ‘Our analysis shows that we expect sufficient margins over the winter and the system is within the reliability standard. Throughout the coming months the situation may change, as it does every winter.’

The main coronavirus hospital in Lebanon has been forced to close operating rooms and delay surgeries amid lengthy power cuts caused by a spiralling economic crisis. Dr Firass Abiad said Lebanon’s largest public healthcare facility was ‘barely making ends meet’ and running out of fuel to power generators for power cuts now lasting 15 hours. Despite soaring summer temperatures the hospital has turned off air-conditioning units in the administrative offices and in the corridors to ensure wards and intensive care units can be cooled, as they treat over 90% of the country’s two thousand confirmed coronavirus cases. He warned that if the crippling power cuts continue, the hospital would have just enough fuel to man the generators for three weeks. The crisis at the hospital is part of the fallout of an unprecedented financial crisis and deteriorating economic conditions in the country.

The US national weather service has issued an ‘extreme red flag’ warning for wildfires in Los Angeles county, Ventura county and the Simi valley. ‘I don't know if I've ever seen us use this warning,’ forecaster Marc Chenard said. ‘It's pretty bad.’ Dangerous fire weather conditions cover over 34,000 square miles, and 21 million people have been warned they may need to leave ‘at a moment's notice’ as the 70 mph winds threaten to bring more devastation to areas already ravaged. Power cuts have left 1.5 million people without electricity.

Nationwide power cuts in Venezuela started on 7 March. The government of Nicolás Maduro blames US-backed saboteurs and snipers for the lack of water and electricity. Experts blame poor maintenance and a bush fire in the power grid. Russia backs Maduro’s version of events, claiming Washington is employing ‘techniques’ to remove him, including a man-made shutdown of energy facilities they called ‘Operation Blackout’. These allegations contradict the widespread consensus that Hugo Chávez’s authoritarian heir is responsible for an unprecedented electricity crisis that has deprived millions of citizens of light and water. Men are chopping down trees to take home to light fires for heat and light. When water stops flowing, people go to rivers and streams and collect muddy water to boil and reuse. There is dehydration, diarrhoea and a danger of more serious diseases. Opposition leader Juan Guaidó is calling people to take to the streets on 1 May for an enormous march to keep the pressure on the president to go. See

Food is rotting in refrigerators, people needing dialysis die as hospital equipment shuts down. Diabetics pick leaves, high in sugar, from neem trees amid fears for insulin supplies which must be kept refrigerated. Venezuela has frequent power cuts. It is illegal to fill jerry cans - so people resort to the black market for fuel for generators. ‘The government calls it contraband - we call it survival,’ said a resident. Recently an electrical substation caught fire in unexplained circumstances, which added to the sense of desperation in a neighbourhood experiencing outbreaks of looting. Citizens have mounted lookouts to warn of government security forces and paramilitary gangs called colectivos, who they fear will take down their jerry-rigged homes where residents pump water from a well and take turns carrying supplies to elderly neighbours on higher floors. Analysts and engineers say underinvestment in a network mismanaged by soldiers rather than qualified technicians has caused the power cuts. See