After nearly five months of maintenance work and costly repairs, unit 3 of the "Carlos Manuel de Céspedes" Thermal Power Plant in Cienfuegos, was synchronized with the National Electrical System (SEN) on May 1, 2025.
The reactivation was presented by the Cuban regime as a "technical victory" amid the acute energy crisis that is suffocating the country. However, just four days later, the block went out of service again due to a leak in the boiler, revealing the severity of the structural collapse of the Cuban electrical system.
The unit had been disconnected in December 2024 to initiate major maintenance, after reporting a series of technical failures that kept it out of the SEN for several prolonged periods.
During the first months of 2025, the authorities reported—bit by bit—on the progress of the work: hydraulic tests, inspection of safety valves, cleaning of systems, and turbine flushing. The promised date for its synchronization was postponed several times, amid increasingly prolonged national blackouts.
A history of recurring failures
It is not the first time that Unit 3 has gone into operation only to fail days later. According to a report published by CiberCuba on April 26, this unit has been one of the most unstable components of the country's thermoelectric system.
In October 2024, it was out of service for over 10 days due to an unexplained malfunction. In November, it experienced further issues with its cooling system, and in December it was finally shut down for major maintenance.
On April 25, 2025, just before the synchronization to the SEN, the official press reported that the thermoelectric plant had begun its technical tests, which included checking the main valves.
On May 1, it was finally announced that they were integrated into the system, accompanied by triumphant headlines that spoke of "collective efforts," without acknowledging the excessive time it took for the repairs or the widespread blackouts experienced by the population during that period.
But the official joy was short-lived: on Monday, May 5, the very reported that unit 3 had once again gone offline, just four days after becoming operational, due to a leak in the boiler.
This new incident caused an immediate impact of over 1,700 MW, with power outages of up to 20 hours reported in several provinces, including Matanzas, Granma, and Santiago de Cuba.
A collapsed system with no capacity for response
This episode reveals the extreme fragility of the Cuban electrical system. The country's thermoelectric plants operate with outdated equipment, often lacking proper spare parts, and under poor maintenance conditions.
This is compounded by logistical difficulties in purchasing fuel, generation losses in the distribution network, and a complete lack of transparency in national energy planning.
The regime has chosen to present the brief reintegrations of repaired units as technical successes, minimizing the context of the structural collapse in which they are situated.
The official narrative avoids mentioning that the operational time of the repaired units is often shorter than the maintenance time. In the case of Unit 3 of the CTE in Cienfuegos, the statistics are striking: more than 120 days of repairs for only four days of service.
Energy crisis with no solution in sight
The fleeting synchronization of this unit has not only proven inefficient but also reveals an energy management characterized by improvisation, institutional secrecy, and a technical inability to minimally sustain national demand.
Although this Friday the state media celebrated the reconnection of block 3 of the Cienfuegos thermoelectric plant to the SEN, the chronic breakdowns, the logistical chaos of the SEN, and the complete lack of real investment capacity to modernize the national energy infrastructure place Cuba in an energy crisis that is not just temporary, but structural and persistent.
Meanwhile, Cubans continue to endure blackouts that exceed 20 hours a day, with scant explanations and no solutions in sight. The thermoelectric plant in Cienfuegos, far from being part of the solution, has become the most stark emblem of the collapse of the Cuban electrical system.
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