‘Energy emergency’: Cuba races to get power back on as mass blackout continues [Video]

CUBA WAS RACING to restore electricity  yesterday after the failure of the island’s biggest power plant caused a nationwide blackout, coming on the heels of weeks of extended outages across the cash-strapped country.

The capital Havana came to a virtual standstill as schools closed, public transport ground to a halt and traffic lights stopped functioning.

The head of electricity supply at the energy ministry, Lazaro Guerra, said the process of restoring power to communist Cuba’s 11 million inhabitants was in its early stages.

“Currently, we have some level of electricity generation” that will be used to start up power plants in several regions of the country, he added.

Guerra previously told state media that the power system had collapsed due to the unexpected shutdown of the Antonio Guiteras power plant, the biggest of the island’s eight coal-fired power plants.

The blackout followed weeks of power outages, lasting up to 20 …