I have survived another national blackout here in Cuba

[CanCuba]

Shit happens and it happens all too frequently here. The national grid went for a dump (again) for the 3rd time in 6 months. I'm not counting the downtime from the hurricane as that happens anywhere a major storm hits.

The official explanation is that a substation in a municipality of Havana took down the entire grid. I'm not buying it. My neighbour who is a retired electrical engineer said "Does a short circuit in your house take down the whole neighbourhood? Nope...all this equipment has their own protections".

But the video from the weather cam is interesting. Yes, the white balance is off due to the sky taking up half the frame but this is just an old 2431-S-S2 and it's captured some decent storm footage.

The lights flickered a few times a couple minutes before the big show. Then the lights dimmed significantly about 3 times before going out completely. This was 8:11pm on Friday. We had our lights back on at 9am this morning (Sunday) even thought we're in a "prioritized" circuit in the hospital district of Havana.

We have the freezer drawer and chest freezer crammed with frozen plastic water bottles and the meat was all still frozen hard so we're good.

This was just another kick in the ass to at least buy 15 or 30kWh of batteries and a proper inverter to keep everything but the split AC systems going.

View attachment NVR_ch11_main_20250314201056_20250314201142.mp4

 

[bigredfish]

Per Grok

• Cuba, Panama, and Venezuela experienced widespread blackouts on March 16, 2025, due to a combination of aging infrastructure, fuel shortages, and economic challenges.
• Cuba's blackouts were triggered by a failure at the Antonio Guiteras Thermoelectric Power Plant and reduced fuel shipments from allies like Russia and Venezuela, as reported in recent analyses of the country's energy crisis.
• Venezuela's power outages are linked to its ongoing economic collapse, deteriorating infrastructure, and U.S. sanctions, which have severely impacted its oil industry and electricity grid.
• Panama's blackouts, though less frequent, were caused by technical failures in its electrical grid, compounded by regional energy market instability, according to local energy reports from early 2025.
• The simultaneous nature of these blackouts raised speculation online, but experts attribute them to independent national issues rather than a coordinated event, as detailed in recent energy sector analyses.

 

[CanCuba]

Per Grok

• Cuba, Panama, and Venezuela experienced widespread blackouts on March 16, 2025, due to a combination of aging infrastructure, fuel shortages, and economic challenges.
• Cuba's blackouts were triggered by a failure at the Antonio Guiteras Thermoelectric Power Plant and reduced fuel shipments from allies like Russia and Venezuela, as reported in recent analyses of the country's energy crisis.
• Venezuela's power outages are linked to its ongoing economic collapse, deteriorating infrastructure, and U.S. sanctions, which have severely impacted its oil industry and electricity grid.
• Panama's blackouts, though less frequent, were caused by technical failures in its electrical grid, compounded by regional energy market instability, according to local energy reports from early 2025.
• The simultaneous nature of these blackouts raised speculation online, but experts attribute them to independent national issues rather than a coordinated event, as detailed in recent energy sector analyses.

I can't say exactly how many but many countries suffer from intermittent blackouts whether regional or larger. Lima, Peru recently lost power in a large scale. Folks I know in Mexico, Honduras, African countries are used to power outages of some scale. Even Nigeria with it's massive oil wealth is a disaster.

Growing up in Canada, we had the blackout of 2003 and other blackouts due to storms whether they be ice or rain.

I just need to build up the guts to order about $5k (plus another pile of cash for shipping) in LifePo4 batteries (about 30kWh worth) and an inverter. I've done a rudimentary audit of my appliances with a plug-in power meter but I'm going to buy a Shelly PM to get a better idea of peak demand in my place as I want to properly size my inverter.

 

[wittaj]

Everyone but CanCuba LOL

 

[bigredfish]

Yeah, here in Florida we all close our blinds facing south

 

[samplenhold]

Even Nigeria with it's massive oil wealth is a disaster.

I lived in Lagos Nigeria for 5 years. NEPA (No Electric Power Again) was a disaster. Most housing complexes and businesses had their own generators. My complex had two large diesel generators that mostly ran 24/7.

 

[looney2ns]

Shit happens and it happens all too frequently here. The national grid went for a dump (again) for the 3rd time in 6 months. I'm not counting the downtime from the hurricane as that happens anywhere a major storm hits.

The official explanation is that a substation in a municipality of Havana took down the entire grid. I'm not buying it. My neighbour who is a retired electrical engineer said "Does a short circuit in your house take down the whole neighbourhood? Nope...all this equipment has their own protections".

But the video from the weather cam is interesting. Yes, the white balance is off due to the sky taking up half the frame but this is just an old 2431-S-S2 and it's captured some decent storm footage.

The lights flickered a few times a couple minutes before the big show. Then the lights dimmed significantly about 3 times before going out completely. This was 8:11pm on Friday. We had our lights back on at 9am this morning (Sunday) even thought we're in a "prioritized" circuit in the hospital district of Havana.

We have the freezer drawer and chest freezer crammed with frozen plastic water bottles and the meat was all still frozen hard so we're good.

This was just another kick in the ass to at least buy 15 or 30kWh of batteries and a proper inverter to keep everything but the split AC systems going.

View attachment 216868

Wow, I bet some electronics was fried with all that flickering....really hard on electronics.

 

[StevenFromTexas]

Wow, I bet some electronics was fried with all that flickering....really hard on electronics.

When that happens in my neighborhood, I kill the master switch and start shutting down stuff that's on those CyberPower PR1500LCD UPC units that looney2ns recommends.

 

[Alaska Country]

I've done a rudimentary audit of my appliances with a plug-in power meter but I'm going to buy a Shelly PM to get a better idea of peak demand in my place as I want to properly size my inverter.

Bought the Emporia Vue 3 for home power monitoring. Replaced it with the IoTaWatt as it produced much better results and did not require the 'cloud' for data storage.

 

[CanCuba]

Wow, I bet some electronics was fried with all that flickering....really hard on electronics.

I have voltage protectors on all the appliances (split ACs, fridges, etc) so they're safe. A small investment which I'm sure has saved me money.

A couple years ago, we had an electrical storm and my transformer started pushing out 135v on each phase. That seemed to fry a couple of LED bulbs. Oddly, they were the furthest from the service entrance.

 

[CanCuba]

Bought the Emporia Vue 3 for home power monitoring. Replaced it with the IoTaWatt as it produced much better results and did not require the 'cloud' for data storage.

Thanks for the tip. I'll check that out.