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Amid the energy crisis affecting Cuba, workers involved in the repairs of the island's aging thermal power plants describe the extreme wear and tear they endure during shifts of up to 14 consecutive hours, experiencing temperatures of 60 degrees inside the boilers and working 150 meters above the ground.
Thus passed the 90 hours of the most recent maintenance of the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric power plant in Matanzas, according to a report published this Wednesday by the official newspaper Granma.
The intervention, prompted by a malfunction in the high-temperature reheater that caused excessive water consumption and hindered load stabilization, took place from May 6 to May 9.
«Inside the boiler, the heat is hellish; one must be careful with the safety measures because the gases can harm your health, and working the number of hours required for these types of interventions is truly exhausting,» reported Norberto Padrón Ramos, the most senior worker on the team, with 38 years of welding experience in all the thermoelectric plants in the country.
"It's a job that ultimately takes its toll, but I don't regret anything," she emphasized.
He stated that he also participated in the major maintenance of the Guiteras in 2004 as part of a national team of technicians.
On her part, the head of the Occupational Safety and Health group, Adaelsis Garcés Torreblanca, describes the pressure involved in safeguarding an experienced brigade that tends to become complacent.
"If someone breaks a nail up here, it's my responsibility, that's why I have to be firm with everyone. I won't move from up here until the last one leaves," he added.
After 90 hours of downtime, the Guiteras started up cold in the early hours of May 9 and, after eight hours of loading, reached a generation capacity of between 200 and 210 megawatts, well below the 270 megawatts it could provide under optimal conditions.
The technical director of the plant, Román Pérez Castañeda, acknowledged that the facility requires major maintenance for at least 180 days and that the last maintenance occurred in 2010, but the country's situation has not allowed it.
Meanwhile, the plant is accumulating 520 planned repair interventions, which are being carried out during short shutdowns: "We take advantage of these moments to carry out some of the 520 interventions we have planned, at least those that can be resolved in the shortest time possible," Castañeda explained.
The director also warned that Washington's pressures complicate the acquisition of parts and the hiring of foreign technical consulting: "This is a direct blow to the national energy sector; they force us to go through the eye of a needle to find a solution."
La Guiteras is the largest unit block of the National Electric System of Cuba. The regime promised a major maintenance—the first in the plant's history— for early 2026, but in December of that year, Energy Minister Vicente de la O Levy postponed it due to a "situational problem."
In April 2026, they were promised again without a specific date, and the plant went out of service again due to a malfunction that same month.
With capital maintenance indefinitely postponed and 520 pending repairs, the workers at Guiteras will continue to face extreme conditions with each intervention, sustaining a plant that the regime has neither been able to—nor wanted to—repair comprehensively for over 15 years.
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