Related videos:
The Antonio Guiteras Thermoelectric Power Plant temporarily reduced its generation to 120 MW this Friday to carry out the replacement of a 6 kV switch.
According to the electric company, the intervention is expected to take about two hours; once the work is completed, the unit will reach a load of up to 205 MW, as reported in the technical bulletin this Friday.
The intervention occurs amidst widespread blackouts due to generation shortfalls and the operational collapse of the National Electric System (SEN), with a demand that far exceeds availability.
According to the update, the maximum impact due to the deficit reached 1,840 MW at 7:00 PM, a figure higher than expected due to the non-commissioning of Santa Cruz 3 (Mayabeque) and Renté (Santiago de Cuba).
At 06:00, the availability of the national electricity system was 1,610 MW against a demand of 2,568 MW, resulting in a deficit of 976 MW; during peak hours, an impact of up to 1,810 MW is expected.
The report attributes the situation to outages in key units (Felton 2, Mariel 8, Renté 6), scheduled maintenance (Santa Cruz del Norte, Carlos Manuel de Céspedes in Cienfuegos, Nuevitas in Camagüey), and thermal limitations that keep 467 MW offline, which extends the service interruption across wide areas of the country.
The operational adjustment coincides with the monitoring due to the approach of Storm Melissa, which threatens the eastern part of Cuba with rain and winds and could complicate maintenance and recovery efforts if weather conditions worsen.
If the replacement of the switch is completed within the estimated time, the Guiteras should gradually restore its contribution to approximately 205 MW, which would help partially mitigate the deficit during the nighttime peak.
However, normalization will depend on the arrival of other units, the stability of the plants experiencing breakdowns, and the weather conditions.
Filed under: