Cuba implements emergency measures as millions go without electricity
HAVANA, Oct 18 (Reuters) -Cuba's communist-run government said late on Thursday it would shut down all non-essential workplaces in its vast state sector, part of an emergency bid to control blackouts that now exceed 12 hours a day for millions of people across the island.
Cuba this week has seen dramatically long power outages even for an island accustomed to devastating shortages. Entire provinces have gone without light for hours, and many locations outside the capital Havana go with less than six hours of electricity a day.
Prime Minister Manuel Marrero blamed a perfect storm well-known to most Cubans - deteriorating infrastructure, fuel shortages and rising demand - for the current crisis.
"The fuel shortage is the biggest factor," Marrero said in a televised message that was garbled by technical difficulties and delayed several hours on Thursday night.
Strong winds and heavy seas that began with the passage of Hurricane Milton last week have crippled the island's ability to deliver scarce fuel from boats offshore to its power plants, officials said.
The island's two largest power plants, Antonio Guiteras and Felton, are both under-producing, the government said, and will soon be taken off-line for maintenance, part of a four-year plan to revitalize Cuba's decrepit infrastructure.
Cuba's fast-growing private businesses, which authorities say tend to be high consumers of electricity, will also soon be charged higher rates for the energy they consume, Marrero said.
Electricity officials said they expect power generation to improve in the coming days as fuel is distributed around the Caribbean's largest island.
The electricity crisis on the island has made life increasingly unbearable for residents already suffering from crippling shortages of food, fuel, water and medicine, prompting a record-breaking exodus off the island in recent years.
Reporting by Dave Sherwood; Editing by Hugh Lawson
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