Tag: infrastructure

Cuba’s Electrical Grid Suffers Complete Collapse

Cuba’s electrical grid has suffered a complete collapse as the Trump Administration prepares to take action on the island country.

“Cuba’s electrical grid has suffered a complete and total collapse. This is according to the country’s power operator,” CNN’s Brianna Keilar.

“It’s the 1st nationwide blackout since the US effectively shut off the flow of oil to Cuba,” she said.

“A total disconnection of the National Electric Power System has occurred. Restoration protocols are beginning to be implemented,” Cuba’s electrical grid provider said on Monday.

President Trump told reporters on Sunday evening that he will finish dealing with Cuba “soon.”

“Cuba’s a failed nation. Cuba also wants to make a deal, and I think we will pretty soon, either make a deal or do whatever we have to do,” Trump told Bloomberg’s Jeff Mason during a gaggle on Air Force One.

“We’re talking to Cuba, but we’re going to do Iran before Cuba,” he said.

“They’ve been waiting 50 years for what’s happening with Cuba. So, I think something will happen with Cuba pretty quickly,” Trump added.

“You know, people have been waiting 50 years to hear this story with Cuba, and when I left Palm Beach today, there were thousands of people in the road. I’m sure you saw them, and they were from Cuba and from Venezuela, all friendly, all friendly, waving the flag and waving the American flag,” he said.

“They’ve been waiting 50 years for what’s happening with Cuba. So, I think something will happen with Cuba pretty quickly,” Trump said.

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Cuban protesters ransack Communist office as energy crisis deepens

Protesters in Cuba have ransacked a Communist Party building following a rally over steep food prices and persistent power cuts, in a rare show of public dissent.

Five people were arrested after a small group vandalised the offices in the central city of Moron overnight into Saturday, Cuba’s Interior Ministry (Minint) said.

Discontent among Cubans has been mounting as the island is buffeted by rolling blackouts and shortages of food, fuel and medicine, exacerbated by a prolonged US oil blockade.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said that, while the protesters’ complaints and demands were “legitimate”, “violence and vandalism that threatens citizen tranquility” would not be tolerated.

He wrote on X that the prolonged blackouts had understandably caused “distress”, blaming them on the US blockade that he characterised as having “cruelly intensified in recent months”.

The protest came hours after the government in Havana confirmed that talks with the US to “seek solutions through dialogue” to the two countries’ differences were under way.

Díaz-Canel said in a national broadcast on Friday that no fuel had entered the country in three months as a result of the US oil blockade.

US President Donald Trump has made no secret of his desire for a change in Cuba’s leadership. He said on Monday that Cuba was in “deep trouble” as he threatened a “friendly takeover”.

Trump previously said the one-party state would be “next” following the capture of its ally, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, in January.

Since then, the US has blocked Venezuelan oil shipments – which provided for about half of Cuba’s energy needs – and threatened to impose tariffs on any country that sold oil to the island nation. This is on top of a six-decade US trade embargo.

Havana relies heavily on imported fuel for electricity generation, and the oil blockade has brought Cuba’s beleaguered economy close to collapse.

The crisis has affected rubbish collection, emergency hospital wards, public transport and education.

Friday’s demonstration “initially began peacefully” before escalating into “acts of vandalism”, state-run newspaper Invasor said.

“A smaller group of people stoned the entrance to the building and started a fire in the street with furniture from the reception area.”

Other state-run facilities, including a pharmacy and a government-operated market were also targeted, it added.

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Iraq and Cuba hit by blackouts amid US pressure and attacks on Iran

Both Iraq and Cuba have been plunged into nationwide blackouts, with the Middle Eastern country’s grid collapsing after a sudden drop in gas supplies to a major power plant in Basra, while the Caribbean island’s outage is being blamed on chronic fuel shortages worsened by the US blockade on Venezuelan oil.

The day before the Iraqi blackout, an Electricity Ministry spokesperson was quoted as saying that “incomplete supplies” of gas from neighboring Iran were already affecting power plant operations. Iran has been facing a massive US-Israeli air campaign since Saturday.

A separate power facility also experienced a shutdown in central Salah al-Din province, with local police explicitly denying reports that the station was targeted by an attack, according to the state-run INA news agency.

Iraq relies on Iranian gas for 30-40% of its power generation. The dependence is a direct consequence of decades of foreign intervention in the country. Before the 1991 Gulf War, the grid, though strained by sanctions, largely met demand. The war destroyed 75% of its generating capacity, and the 2003 US-led invasion caused a catastrophic collapse to less than 10% of prior output.

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DOE Announces $171 Million For Geothermal Expansion

The DOE released a Notice of Funding Opportunity offering up to $171.5 million for next-generation geothermal field tests and resource exploration.

The program targets field-scale demonstrations of enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) for electricity generation, along with drilling to characterize and confirm hydrothermal and next-gen prospects nationwide.

The funding splits into two initial open topics: up to $100 million for EGS field tests and $71.5 million for exploratory drilling. Letters of intent are due March 27, with full applications due April 30. The move directly supports President Trump’s Executive Order “Unleashing American Energy,” according to the agency.

Geothermal currently supplies roughly 4 GW of U.S. capacity, but represents only about 0.3% of total power generation. DOE estimates the resource base could support 300 GW or more by 2050 with technology improvements, delivering firm, 24/7 baseload power that complements intermittent renewables and meets rising demand from data centers and AI infrastructure.

Recent studies show that some of the best locations in the United States for new geothermal sites are in the western part of the country and some of the southern states.

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Hungary To Deploy Troops To Energy Facilities As Tensions With Ukraine Grow

Tensions between Ukraine and Hungary continue as Kyiv continues to destroy energy facilities which supply Russian gas to the central European nation. Budapest has blocked the 90M EUR loan package to Ukraine as a result, and is now taking further security measures.

Ukraine’s President Zelenskiy insulted Orban at the Munich Security Conference and Ukraine has a history of suppressing the Hungarian culture in Ukraine.

Viktor Orbán said Hungary will deploy troops and increase security around key energy facilities amid tensions with Ukraine over Druzhba pipeline disruptions.

Hungary also imposed a drone ban near the Ukrainian border and has blocked EU measures supporting Kyiv, reports Pravda Hungary.

Orban called out Zelenskiy over his continuation of the conflict.

This crisis could result in the European Union splitting or even collapsing, as globalist European capitals continue to push for global war.

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Las Vegas Police Investigate Possible Terrorist Attack After Man Plows Into Electric Substation

Authorities are investigating a possible terrorist attack in Nevada.

Las Vegas police have reported they are investigating a possible terror attack after a man drove his vehicle into a power station in Boulder City, Nevada.

Sheriff Kevin McMahill, during a press conference, shared that a 23-year-old suspect who was previously reported missing in New York drove across the country and crashed his vehicle into a secure gate at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power facility.

McMahill told the room full of reporters that they obtained multiple books related to extremist ideologies as well as explosive materials during their investigation of the suspect.

KTNV reported the suspect has been identified as 23-year-old Dawson Maloney of Albany, New York.

The outlet further reported that Maloney, following the crash, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

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Left-Wing Activists Ran Off the Normal People Who Knew How to Do Their Jobs

A story flying below the radar of most national media has been the drawn-out loss of electric power by tens of thousands of Nashville-area residents. About 200,000 Nashville Electric Services (“NES”) customers lost power in an ice storm on Sunday, Jan. 25. A week later, there were still over 30,000 customers without service, with temperatures continuing to dip well below freezing. The mounting death toll has included a 92-year-old man and a 79-year-old woman, both found dead in their frigid residences.

NES is a public utility that has been captured by woke leadership focused on DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) and ESG (Environmental Social Governance) rather than focusing on being a provider of reliable, affordable energy.

As documented by the Tennessee Star, NES produced a “Community Investment Report” with a heavy focus on green energy, sustainability, and DEI. The CEO, Teresa Broyles-Aplin, boasted that employees were put through over 100 “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility, & Belonging” training sessions. The report also identified “renewable energy, electrification, energy efficiency and demand response, resiliency, diversity, equity and inclusion, employee engagement and development, and greenhouse gas emission as the topics most important to NES and stakeholders simultaneously.” Maintaining a functioning electric grid is noticeably absent from that itemization.

One reason the storm was so destructive is that NES deliberately refrained from trimming trees along power lines. Just this past August, Ms. Broyles-Aplin boasted on a local TV station about the utility’s decision not to do preventative trimming, stating that “We care about the canopy. We have to live here too. I don’t want us out destroying the canopy.” Unfortunately, that canopy got covered in ice, and much of it fell on power lines, causing extensive damage. With NES apparently incapable of handling the core functions of a utility, nor capable of getting service restored, there is a growing clamor by state politicians for changes in how the inept utility is run.

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Electricity shortage event “plausible” in next 5 years

Ireland’s energy regulator has warned that a national electricity shortage is a “plausible” scenario within the next five years if peak demand reaches currently projected levels.

The assessment was published by the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) as part of its Risk Preparedness Plan (RPP). The report, a legal requirement for all EU member states every four years, examines potential disaster scenarios to assess their hypothetical severity and likelihood.

“CRISIS-TYPE SCENARIOS”

Working in “close collaboration” with grid operator EirGrid, the CRU examined “crisis-type scenarios” that could “lead to significant national-scale impacts on the electricity system” and the general public.

The findings were based on the All-Island Resource Adequacy Assessment 2025–2034 (AIRAA), a joint report by EirGrid and SONI which forecasts how supply and demand will align over the coming decade.

“If the maximum demand forecast trajectory described in the AIRAA materialised, it is plausible that there could be an electricity shortage event within the next 2 to 5 year period,” the CRU stated, noting that “as such mitigation plans to address this must be put in place.”

“REASONABLE WORST-CASE SCENARIOS”, NOT “PREDICTIONS”

However, the regulator stressed that the findings should be viewed as “reasonable worst-case scenarios” rather than “predictions”. The RPP is designed to ensure the energy system can plan and prepare for potential crises.

“These are not predictions of what will happen, but are plausible events that could occur in a reasonable worst case and typically would involve the alignment / occurrence of a number of simultaneous issues to occur to be actualised,” the regulator said.

The report noted that Ireland shares common risks with other EU nations, including extreme weather, natural disasters, malicious cyber attacks, pandemics, solar storms, and supply chain disruptions.

MITIGATION EFFORTS

To manage these risks, the CRU pointed to existing mitigation measures, including the Security of Supply (SoS) Programme and the recently introduced Large Energy User (LEU) connection policy.

The LEU policy specifically targets the power demands of new data centres, which accounted for 22% of Ireland’s total metered electricity in 2024, according to Central Statistics Office (CSO) figures. Under the new rules, these facilities are required to provide 80% of their power from renewable generation to reduce pressure on the national grid.

Further investment is also underway following the CRU’s approval in November of an €18.9 billion capital programme. The five-year plan aims to modernise the existing network and build new infrastructure to meet rising demand.

As an additional safeguard, the Moneypoint power station has been reconfigured as a backup facility. Following the end of coal-fired generation at the site last year, the plant now operates using Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO).

“Moneypoint power station is available as a generator of last resort since the start of July 2025,” the CRU confirmed. The facility will remain in place as an emergency “strategic reserve” until 2029.

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“Out Of Touch”: Marylanders Fume As Gov. Moore Prioritizes Building Energy-Hungry ‘Sphere’ Amid Power Bill Crisis

Marylanders are raging at left-wing Governor Wes Moore, accusing him of fast-tracking a massively power-hungry Sphere entertainment venue near Washington, DC, while working-class households across the central part of the state are drowning under crushing electricity bills.

“So this Governor spends money he doesn’t even have yet. 200 million dollars of the cost for the Sphere at National Harbor will come from the State of Maryland’s 2027 budget. He is so out of touch with what MD residents need and doesn’t care as long as his name is in the headlines every day,” Maryland resident Amy Milberger Seaman wrote in a Facebook group called “BGE Victims,” which has nearly 15,000 residents upset about exploding power bills.

Local media outlet WBAL-TV reported Monday that Sphere Entertainment plans to build its second U.S. Sphere venue in National Harbor, in Prince George’s County.

The Sphere will be slightly smaller than the one in Las Vegas, seating 6,000. Gov. Moore called the project the largest economic development project in the county’s history. The venue is expected to be funded through a mix of public and private financing, including $200 million in incentives from the state.

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“I’m $6K Behind”: Maryland Power Bill Crisis Sparks Debt Panic As 14,000 Residents Cry For Help Online

The Maryland power bill crisis first came to our attention in August 2024, when years of poor power-grid management by Democrats (mostly due to backfiring ‘green’ policies) in the state collided with surging electricity demand from AI data centers.

Fast forward to today: the power bill crisis in the one-party rule state of Democratic Party kings and queens, headed by leftist Gov. Wes Moore, who has presidential ambitions, is getting hammered in the polling numbers (new data from Annapolis-based Gonzales Research & Media) as struggling Marylanders are financially crushed by mounting power-bill debt and venting their frustration in a Facebook group with nearly 14,000 angry residents.

The Facebook group called “BGE Victims” has amassed 13.7k members, with many in the group pointing fingers at not just the local utility BGE or the grid operator PJM, but also the one-party rule of Democrats in the state who have masqueraded as competent managers but in reality are far-left activists looting the state’s coffers to fund pet projects from supporting illegal aliens to all things woke.

Epic grid mismanagement, such as retiring fossil fuel power plants and de-growthing the grid with unreliable solar and wind to solve what Democrats say is a climate crisis emergency, has been nothing more than mismanagement, and the end result has been the financial destruction of the working class.

“I just joined this post and I’m in the same situation as a lot of people my BG& bill is 800dollars a month and I have no idea why I’ve called them and they’ve even came out and they told me the same thing that they told other people change my lightbulbs do this do that and it’s still that much right now I’m in a worse situation than ever my BgE bill has accumulated. I’m not kidding to almost $6000 behind they can’t cut the electric off till the end of February,” Baltimore resident Sheryl Harrison wrote in the group, posting her total past due amount from her electricity bill that tops nearly $6,100.

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