The stoppage of the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant is extended by seven days.

After a sudden halt on Wednesday that did not last more than 24 hours, Cuban authorities announced this Thursday that the Antonio Guiteras Thermoelectric Central (CTE) in Matanzas will be removed from the National Electroenergetic System (SEN) for seven days to continue repair work.

The management of the largest power generation plant in the country said in a Facebook post that during the following week, the technicians will make the most of "every minute to work on the cleaning and maintenance of other equipment that also needs it."

This Thursday, the Guiteras had not been able to reconnect to the SEN as expected, following yet another breakdown that had left the country with less electricity generation capacity since the early hours of Wednesday.

The Matanzas journalist José Miguel Solís pointed out that "the night and early morning were particularly difficult moments," and that "the issue with the regulation of the turbine valves could not be resolved at the moment."

In a failed attempt to put a positive spin on a topic that has frustrated Cubans, the communicator pointed out that "the solution will come, perhaps in a matter of hours, or a couple of days," and added that "a truce is also necessary to do things right."

In a previous post, Solís had said – citing statements from Rubén Campos Olmos, director of Guiteras – that progress was being made "in the inspection and solution of the oil system failure that activates the turbine valves," and that within a few hours they would be testing it and, if everything was fine, they would proceed with the tasks to ignite the boiler.

The Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric power plant, turned into a symbol of the instability of the Cuban energy system in recent years, went out of service again early Wednesday due to a failure in the oil control system.

This incident added to a long list of technical problems that have affected the CTE in recent times.

The Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant, located in a key area of high electricity demand, is essential to mitigate blackouts, but its inability to operate continuously highlights the deficiencies and lack of proper maintenance in Cuba's energy infrastructure.