A day after a massive nationwide blackout left millions of Cubans without electricity, authorities were trying to reconnect the island's integrated energy system Saturday with gradual and limited success.

The entire island of Cuba suffered an electrical blackout that began late Friday morning and went into the night due to the failure of one of the few energy plants that were still working, amid what the government a few hours before called an “energy emergency.”

Cuban officials said that the blackout saw 1.64 gigawatts go offline during peak hours in the early evening, about half the total demand at the time.