Cuba’s power grid collapsed Friday night, triggering a nationwide power outage and plunging its more than 10 million people into darkness.

The grid collapse follows a string of nationwide blackouts late last year that plunged Cuba's frail power generating system into near-total disarray, stressed by fuel shortages, natural disaster and economic crisis.

Cuba's eight thermal power plants, nearly all of which came online in the 1980s or 1990s, suffer routine failures.