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The Antonio Guiteras Thermoelectric Plant went offline in the National Electric System early Monday morning due to a new leak in the boiler, marking its 15th breakdown of the year, which raises the projected impact for peak nighttime hours to 2,085 MW according to the Electric Union.
The plant, the most important in Cuba, had barely returned to the system last Thursday, June 12, at 12:07, after its 14th outage, which occurred on Saturday, June 7, also due to leaks in the boiler.
"Early in the morning, the CTE Antonio Guiteras was out of service due to a boiler leak," confirmed the UNE on its social media.
At 6:00 AM this Monday, the availability of the SEN was only 995 MW compared to a demand of 2,620 MW, with 1,630 MW already affected at that time.
During peak hours, the situation is even more serious: UNE forecasts a maximum demand of 3,050 MW with the same availability of 995 MW, resulting in a deficit of 2,055 MW. "If the expected conditions persist, an impact of 2,085 MW is predicted during this time," warns the information note.
That figure is close to the historical record set on May 14, when the deficit reached 2,174 MW with only 976 MW available against a demand of 3,150 MW, leaving 70% of the country without service simultaneously.
On Sunday, June 14, the situation was already critical: the peak impact reached 1,882 MW at 9:50 PM, with outages lasting throughout the entire day.
The Guiteras is not the only plant out of service this Monday.
The Unit 6 of the Máximo Gómez Power Plant, Unit 3 of the Ernesto Guevara De La Serna Power Plant, Unit 2 of the Lidio Ramón Pérez Power Plant, and Unit 3 of the Antonio Maceo Power Plant are also out of service.
Unit 5 of the Mariel CTE, Units 5 and 6 of the Renté CTE, and Unit 5 of the Nuevitas CTE are undergoing scheduled maintenance.
Technical failures are compounded by fuel shortages: 106 distributed generation plants are out of service due to lack of fuel, amounting to 890 MW, while the Patana de Regla, Patana de Melones, Central Fuel of Mariel, and Central Fuel of Moa are also inoperative, for a total of 1,203 MW unavailable solely due to fuel.
The 54 new solar photovoltaic parks contributed 3,070 MWh on Sunday, with a peak power of 489 MW during peak hours, but their contribution is insufficient to offset the structural deficit during the nighttime.
The deterioration of the Guiteras has a cause acknowledged by the authorities themselves: the plant has not received any major maintenance since 2010, over 15 years ago.
His director, Román Pérez Castañeda, admitted in May that the power plant needs at least 180 days of downtime for that intervention, but that "the situation in the country still does not allow it."
The Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, promised this maintenance for the end of 2025, postponed it in December citing a "situational problem," and mentioned it again in April 2026 without setting a specific date.
The impact on the population is devastating: in Havana, power outages have reached 20-22 hours daily in May and June, while in provinces such as Granma and Santiago de Cuba, interruptions of more than 48 consecutive hours have been reported.
Neighboring desperation is already manifesting in protests: residents of the San Ricardo neighborhood in Santiago de Cuba took to the streets on Sunday after several days without electricity, reflecting the social exhaustion caused by the worst energy crisis in the Island's recent history.
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