HAVANA, Cuba (AFP)-Power was restored to 11 of Cuba’s 15 provinces Thursday, the national electricity company said after an island-wide blackout that lasted nearly 24 hours.

The Cuban Electric Union said on X that 79.4 percent of households in the capital Havana have electricity again after the fifth widespread blackout in the cash-strapped nation since October 2024.

“The SEN (National Electric System) has been reconnected, with restoration still pending” in four provinces, the company said.

The outage surprised Cubans Wednesday morning, after many had already left for work or to drop their children at school.

Maria Beltran, a 58-year-old social worker who lives in a densely populated neighborhood of western Havana, told AFP power returned to her home at dawn.

“We realised it because we left all the lights on to know. It’s not easy; yesterday we stayed at home, unable to go out.”

The country of 10 million people has been plagued by hours-long daily blackouts in recent years, as well as recurring electricity system breakdowns and an acute shortage of fuel to run power generators.

These general outages paralyze commercial activities as the communist island battles its worst economic crisis in decades.

The country relies on eight outdated thermoelectric plants, most of them online since the 1980s and 90s and prone to breakdowns.

Under a US trade embargo since the 1960s and battling its worst economic crisis in decades, the country also uses floating electric plants rented from Turkish companies, and generators fueled by crude oil Cuba is struggling to pay for.

The Ministry of Energy said a false overheating signal caused the Antonio Guiteras plant in central Cuba to go offline, triggering a national system collapse.

The recent installation of 30 solar energy parks, with assistance from China, out of the 52 planned for this year, has not alleviated the situation.

The blackouts have led to rare anti-government protests.