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The Electric Union (UNE) announced on Monday an "emergency strategy" to try to halt the series of breakdowns that have left the Antonio Guiteras Thermoelectric Plant trapped in an increasingly frequent cycle of failures, after the facility experienced its 15th failure so far in 2026.
The shutdown of the country's main power plant occurred early in the morning due to a new malfunction in the boiler, as confirmed by the plant itself on social media. The unit is currently undergoing natural cooling to allow for an internal inspection to determine the exact cause of the problem.
More than a definitive repair, the UNE's proposal aims to buy time.
The General Director of UNE, Rubén Campos Olmo, explained that specialists will evaluate the condition of the boiler to design an intervention that will reduce the constant breakdowns and maintain the plant's operation during the summer months, when electricity demand reaches its highest levels, as reported by the official journalist José Miguel Solís.
The measure highlights the critical situation of a facility that has not received major maintenance since 2010 and whose infrastructure has endured years of deterioration.
The seriousness of the problem was recognized months ago by the director of Guiteras, Román Pérez Castañeda, who admitted that the plant needs a shutdown of at least 180 days to carry out the extensive repairs required. However, he then stated that the national energy crisis prevents the most important generating unit in Cuba from being taken offline for such an extended period.
The main source of the breakdowns is found in the economizer of the boiler, where damage has been detected in more than 500 tubes. A comprehensive repair would require between 1,000 and 1,200 welding beads, a magnitude that illustrates the advanced deterioration of the facility.
The new breakdown occurred just a week after the plant returned to the National Electric System following another outage caused again by issues with the boiler. The recurrence of these failures has made Guiteras one of the most visible symbols of the energy crisis the country is experiencing.
While the technicians seek a temporary solution, the consequences continue to reach millions of Cuban households.
The availability of the national electrical system barely reached 995 megawatts this Thursday, while demand exceeded 2,600 MW. For the peak nighttime hours, the UNE anticipates impacts that could exceed 2,000 MW, coming close to the worst energy deficit records reported on the Island.
The situation is worsening due to the simultaneous shutdown of other thermoelectric units and the deactivation of over a hundred distributed generation motors due to a lack of fuel.
Amid this situation, power outages continue to affect the population. In several areas of Havana, electric cuts last more than 20 hours a day, while in eastern provinces interruptions have been reported that exceed 48 consecutive hours.
The so-called "emerging strategy" of UNE reflects an increasingly difficult reality to hide: Cuba's main thermoelectric plant needs extensive repairs that the country cannot afford to undertake, while millions of Cubans continue to bear the consequences of an increasingly fragile electric system.
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