Cuba faces nationwide blackout after power grid collapse

Cuba plunged into a nationwide blackout on Wednesday morning after its power grid collapsed, leaving millions without electricity and officials scrambling to restore service. The Ministry of Energy and Mines said the outage, which occurred at about 9:15 a.m. local time, may be linked to an unexpected shutdown at one of the island's largest thermoelectric plants, and crews were sent to repair the system and bring power first to hospitals, food production plants and other priority sites.

Officials and unions differed on some details of the cause. The ministry's vice minister, Argelio Abad, said on state television that an apparently erroneous message warning of overheating triggered an automatic disconnection of the thermoelectric plant. The electrical workers union and the energy minister said a failure at the 300 megawatt CTE Antonio Guiteras plant had brought the entire grid down, and the union said it was meeting with Prime Minister Manuel Marrero to coordinate restoration efforts.

Reports varied on how to count the recent cascade of outages. Some outlets and officials described Wednesday's collapse as the fourth nationwide blackout in about a year, while others called it the...