The director of the Antonio Guiteras Thermoelectric Power Plant, Rubén Campos Olmos, assured this Thursday that efforts are being "intensified" to allow the plant, the largest energy generator in the country, to restart operations this Saturday after 48 hours of maintenance.
However, these statements published on Facebook by the government-aligned journalist José Miguel Solís highlight the fragile condition of a facility that has been operating at the limits of its capacity after 37 years of continuous use.
Campos explained that the maintenance, scheduled to be completed within 96 hours, which ends this Saturday, has encountered unforeseen issues such as an excess of ash and severe contamination on the heat exchange surfaces.
Despite this, he assured that the specialized workers from the Electric Power Plants Maintenance Company, backed by a budget exceeding 15 million pesos, are working around the clock to meet the stipulated deadline.
According to the director, this work will allow the plant to exceed 250 megawatts of power.
La Guiteras, located in Matanzas, has burned over 9 million tons of national crude oil during its 37 years of operation, significantly exceeding the original lifespan of its boiler, which was estimated at 30 years.
This accumulated wear transforms each maintenance process into a technical challenge that demands not only dedication but also resources that are often insufficient.
The optimistic rhetoric of "doubling efforts" reflects the ability of technicians and workers to address urgent problems, but it also highlights the lack of a clear strategy to ensure long-term stability.
The Unión Eléctrica (UNE) reported last Tuesday about the disconnection of the CTE Guiteras for planned maintenance that will last four days (96 hours), during which they will carry out “urgent work on the boiler.”
At the beginning of the month, the largest and most significant CTE in Cuba faced serious operational difficulties, as a gas leak prevented it from reaching its maximum generation potential.
For that reason, the plant was generating only 175 megawatts (MW), which is why a shutdown was decided.
However, the departure of the "Guiteras" significantly worsened the situation regarding power outages, with electricity cuts in some provinces of the country lasting up to 20 hours a day.
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