HAVANA – Cuba’s energy ministry said electricity went out on Friday, affecting the island’s entire population of 10 million people after one of its main power stations failed.

The government had tried to keep the lights on earlier in the day by closing schools and telling most state workers to stay home in an effort to conserve energy. But that wasn’t enough, and by 11 a.m. the largest power plant went offline, causing the power grid to fail.

The president of the communist-led country, Miguel Díaz-Canel, wrote on

Cubans have been suffering from rolling blackouts for months. In some provinces outside the capital Havana, many people have suffered power outages that can last up to twelve hours at a time.

Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero on Thursday blamed the ongoing power outages on deteriorating infrastructure, fuel shortages and rising demand among the population.

While the demand for electricity has increased, the supply of oil has been severely limited. Cuba’s ally and main oil supplier, Venezuela, has reduced the number of shipments to the island. Oil shipments from other countries, such as Russia and Mexico, have also been sharply reduced.

Authorities said they did not know how long it would take to restore power.

This particular moment is worrying for many Cubans. While walking in a Havana neighborhood, people expressed concern about the situation, with one resident saying it felt like the country had reached the “bottom of the barrel.”

“This is unbelievable,” said one Havana resident, who declined to give his name. “I don’t see a solution to this problem.”

A woman in an Old Havana neighborhood said she feared the situation would worsen. “It really concerns me that we may not have reached the bottom of this electricity crisis yet,” she told NBC News.

The Cuban government blames the decades-old U.S. embargo for many of the island’s economic shortcomings. Donald Trump increased sanctions while president, and the pandemic had a devastating impact on the island’s tourism industry, one of the most lucrative sources of income for the state-dominated economy.

The economic crisis has already made life difficult for the average Cuban, with shortages of food, medicine and fuel.

Carmen Sesin reported from Miami and Orlando Matos from Havana.