The Antonio Guiteras Thermoelectric Power Plant in Matanzas was disconnected from the National Electroenergetic System this Sunday after successfully synchronizing in the morning.
The official journalist José Miguel Solís quoted engineer Rubén Campos Olmos on Facebook, who explained that the unit reached an initial power of 32 MW at 11:20 AM before stopping to address a technical issue related to the fuel preparation station.
The adjustment, which is expected to take around three hours, is part of efforts to stabilize the plant's operation and ensure sustained functioning.
According to Solís, the consulted specialists confirmed that, despite this setback, the fact that the unit reached 32 MW demonstrates the effectiveness of the work done on the boiler, which raises hopes that the final synchronization will be achieved without major complications.
Although the journalist made the post after 5:00 PM, he explained that the information corresponded to data from 4:25 PM, "and now we are publishing for obvious reasons," he noted.
Solís had previously reported on his Facebook profile this Sunday that parameters were being escalated to operate the turbine, a delicate operation that first requires stabilizing the pressure in the boiler, around 100 atmospheres, and then sending quality steam to the turbine to start rotating until reaching 3,600 revolutions per minute.
With the unit stable, he explained, an attempt would be made to synchronize with the national electricity grid, a maneuver that requires precisely balancing the delivery of energy with consumption, while maintaining the frequency at 60 cycles per second. "It's nothing like a homemade generator!" he pointed out, since after synchronization, the process continues with the operation of self-sustaining energy delivery and gaining load in coordination with the National Load Dispatch.
Solís also highlighted the human effort behind these maneuvers: exhausting night shifts, technicians working more than 48 hours at the plant, and offices transforming into makeshift spaces to shave, take a shower, and recharge with coffee. All this while the startup team and the BTG technicians (Boiler, Turbine, Generator) constantly patrol the plant to supervise every detail of a process that demands absolute precision.
According to their statements, if no complications arose and the notorious "Murphy's Law" did not manifest, the unit was expected to be online after noon, at a moment they described as "absolute silence that erupts into applause and very Cuban phrases," with the emblematic motto: "No one gives up here, c...".
Optimistically, it had been announced that the CTE would resume its operations this Saturday after a scheduled maintenance period of 96 hours that began last Tuesday.
The state journalist Solís had reported on Facebook that the repair work would conclude around 7:00 pm on Saturday after facing several obstacles.
The director of Guiteras, Campos Olmos, also assured this Thursday that efforts were being "doubled" to enable the plant, the largest energy generator in the country, to resume operations this Saturday.
The UNE informed last Tuesday about the disconnection of the thermoelectric plant for planned maintenance that will last four days (96 hours), during which "essential work on the boiler" will be undertaken.
At the beginning of the month, the largest and most important CTE in Cuba was facing serious operational difficulties, as a gas leak prevented it from reaching its full generation capacity.
For that reason, the plant continued generating only 175 megawatts (MW), which is why a shutdown was decided.
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