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The Antonio Guiteras Thermoelectric Power Plant, the largest generating facility in Cuba, will not be able to rejoin the National Electric Power System (SEN) this Sunday after new water leaks were detected in its boiler during a hydraulic test conducted on Saturday night, according to report by official journalist José Miguel Solís.
Solís specified that Sunday's activities will focus on welding work and monitoring the malfunction, and that a new hydraulic test will be necessary to verify the quality of the repairs before attempting any restart.
This is the 16th output of the SEN that Guiteras has recorded so far in 2026.
The plant, located in Matanzas, had gone offline on June 24 at 5:48 p.m. due to a loss of water in the boiler, exacerbated by a recurring issue with the economizer, just two days after returning on June 22.
On Saturday, specialists were working on the repair of three damaged tubes of the economizer, but the nighttime hydraulic test revealed that the problems persist in the boiler.
The pattern repeats with alarming regularity: the plant goes offline, undergoes partial repairs, returns briefly, and then fails again.
Between January and May 2026, the Guiteras accumulated 293 hours out of service solely due to defects in the economizer, and it has been over 15 years since its last major maintenance — the last one was in 2010 — with a technical debt that includes the repair of approximately 500 tubes and between 1,000 and 1,200 weld beads.
Each new breakdown at the Guiteras directly impacts a population that is already enduring an unprecedented electrical crisis.
On June 25, the largest electricity deficit in recent Cuban history was recorded: 2,208 MW at 8:50 PM, affecting more than 70% of the national territory.
The general director of Electricity at the Ministry of Energy and Mines, Lázaro Guerra Hernández, projected a deficit of 2,165 MW during the nighttime peak for Saturday, as he explained in statements reported by official media.
This structural deficit is compounded by 106 distributed generation plants that are halted due to a lack of diesel —890 MW lost— and another 1,203 MW inactive in strategic facilities due to fuel shortages.
Matanzas, the province where Guiteras is located, has experienced up to 85 consecutive hours without electricity in June, while Havana suffers from power outages of up to 22-24 hours daily.
Before its shutdown on June 24, the plant provided 250 MW of stable generation to the SEN, a critical fraction in a system on the brink of total collapse.
Solís's statement summarizes the situation without euphemisms: "It is expected that the unit will not be incorporated into the system this Sunday."
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