Thermoelectric Antonio Guiteras synchronizes with the national system after being struck by lightning

The Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant, from Matanzas, was synchronized this Wednesday with the National Electric System (SEN) after go out of operation the day before due to a lightning strike.

Engineer Raymel Rodríguez Ávila, production director, informed the newspaper Giron that at 6:20 am the largest unit block of the electrical system came online again.

"After the arduous effort made by specialists yesterday afternoon to eradicate the problems caused by an electrical discharge that affected the central line, so power generation had to be stopped, the plant is back online," he said. .

According to the expert, at this moment 50 megawatts are being generated, an amount that will gradually increase as the generation process progresses during this day.

Palmero Aguilar, general director of the plant, told the radio station Radio26 that the three lightning rods are already mounted.

Television journalist Bernardo Espinosa announced on his Facebook profile that after receiving the electric shock, he worked on repairing the plant all night and early in the morning.

Despite the synchronization, the service is still affected by planned maintenance work and the breakdowns that have occurred in the thermal units.

Those responsible for the electricity supply have announced that the generation deficit that the SEN is dragging will make Cubans must continue to endure more blackouts indefinitely.

Since last May 18, the Electrical Union (UNE) reported that the wave of blackouts suffered by the population was due to a generation deficit, the situation has worsened and not a day goes by without the authorities reporting new incidents.

This Wednesday, the television Round Table will discuss the current crisis, with the presence of the Minister of Energy and Mines, Liván Arronte Cruz and the director of the UNE, Jorge Armando Cepero Hernández.

The most recent of these incidents occurred on Tuesday afternoon, when the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant went out of operation due to the impact of an electric shock.

"An electric shock has just hit the lightning rod at the Guiteras exit line and the plant has just abruptly left the National Electroenergetic System (SEN)," reported journalist José Miguel Solís, from Radio Rebelde.

Solís explained that, according to workers who witnessed the event, "the lightning struck the lightning protection equipment, but such was the force that it destroyed the lightning rod."

"The electric discharge was very close to the plant's output transformer and as is known, those almost 20 million volts generated by lightning could have been induced in some technological equipment, although the protection system was functional," he explained.