Power has failed again in Cuba after more than two days of blackouts

Cuban authorities said a third failure to restore power across the country late Saturday left millions in the dark and raised questions about whether the government can restore service at all.

Reuters reported that Cuba's national grid collapsed for the first time around noon on Friday due to the shutdown of the largest power plant. The power grid collapsed again Saturday morning, according to state media.

By early evening, authorities reported some progress in restoring power, and soon after announced that the grid had collapsed again.

"At 10:25 p.m. tonight, the national power system was again completely cut off," the Havana Electric Company said on Telegram late Saturday. The post was later deleted. It was not immediately clear why, but millions of people were still facing power outages early Sunday.

Cuba's Energy Ministry said shortly after the announcement from the Havana Electric company that there had been another power outage in the western subsystem, including Havana. "The process of restoring the power system is still complicated."

Internet traffic in Cuba dropped sharply Saturday as a massive power outage left most residents unable to charge their phones and surf the Internet, according to Internet monitoring group NetBlocks.

Even before the grid failure, the Cuban government was forced to send non-essential civil servants home and close schools to save fuel for power generation due to severe power shortages Friday.

The government has blamed weeks of worsening power outages - 10 to 20 hours a day across much of the country - on deteriorating infrastructure, fuel shortages and rising demand. They also blame the US trade embargo and sanctions imposed by then-President Donald Trump for continuing difficulties in obtaining fuel and spare parts for their power plants.