Just read about Cuba’s power grid collapsing and leaving millions without electricity. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c07j40dyx53o
It’s a mix of aging infrastructure, fuel shortages and reliance on imported energy.
And once something critical fails, the whole grid goes down.
What also stood out is how this wasn’t a sudden one-off event. There have been repeated blackouts over the past couple of years, which suggests the system was already under stress before it finally collapsed.
Kind of makes me wonder:
How resilient are modern power grids in other countries, especially with increasing demand and aging infrastructure?
And at a personal level, do you think people should be doing more to prepare for longer-term outages (backup power, solar, etc.), or is this more of a rare edge case?
Source: Inner_Antelope_6042
4 Comments
Now collapse the Iranian ones
Cuba is being intentionally starved out. That was the real reason for Venezuela. The new leader is supporting Trump’s efforts to blockade them into submission. The US Navy is blocking humanitarian aid from reaching the country. This is targeting civilians and is a violation of international law, nevermind evil. But par for the course.
Leave it to the terrible evil regime with thirty something percent approval of the public to go around the world and terrorize every other repressive regime with about equal popularity of its people.
Realistically the only thing the majority of people can do is large home solar + whole house battery banks large enough for a few days.
Generators are awesome but need fuel. And fuel can be a challenge to stock pile or source during an event.
There’s a well-repeated joke of engineers & power planners in the UK has a TV with the nightly popular show or TV drama, where they’d preemptively increase generation before the general public gets up during commercial break to brew tea via their electric kettle.
Cuba wise, it’s just the sheer result from decades of sanctions. I don’t think even super-cheap or ultra-subsidized solar could be exported to the country easily.
Microgrids might be the temporary future for the small island state, but with the ongoing sanctions there’s really not much the ruling government can bypass.