The state-run Canal Caribe aired a report this Wednesday about the electric transformer factory in Manzanillo, located in the province of Granma, presenting it as the government's response to the devastating energy crisis affecting the island.
The official media described her as the "industrial pillar" of eastern Cuba, although power outages in that same region average between 20 and 24 hours daily.
The center, the only one of its kind in the eastern region, addresses transformer malfunctions in the provinces between Ciego de Ávila and Guantánamo.
According to the report, the plant recovers between 70 and 100 transformers per month, reusing between 80 and 90% of the components from each damaged unit.
"We are averaging between 70 and 100 transformers each month. This also depends on the number of transformers that are brought to us, the number of transformers that are damaged, and based on this quantity, we can incorporate them into production and release them as new," stated an executive from the facility before the cameras of the state channel.
The factory operates under a technological recycling scheme that, according to its managers, allows for savings of up to three times the cost of purchasing a new transformer.
By mid-2026, the plant had recovered 242 transformers, which is equivalent to 72% of its annual target, with only 44 units remaining to complete the program, as confirmed by its director, Ángel García Elíes, to Radio Bayamo.
The report from the state-run channel emphasized the "sense of belonging" among a workforce predominantly comprised of young employees.
"With their daily innovation, their ideas, and the everyday solutions they provide, the possibility of bringing out another transformer is being addressed, allowing us to tackle this challenging and significant situation we face," acknowledged one of the executives, in one of the few admissions of the true severity of the crisis found in the material.
What the official report omitted is the chasm between that production and the actual needs of the country.
The Electric Union acknowledged in June 2026 that there is no physical availability of transformer spare parts in any province.
In Holguín, 25 damaged units were recorded compared to only six available for replacement, and in Sancti Spíritus, the number of broken transformers was around 60.
The generation deficit in July 2026 reaches 2,130 MW against a demand of 3,150 MW, with an actual availability of only between 1,000 and 1,155 MW.
Cuba has experienced five complete blackouts of the national electric power system so far in 2026, the last one on Tuesday, July 14, caused by the shutdown of Unit 1 of the Felton thermoelectric plant in Holguín.
The national plan for 2026 includes the production of 10,000 transformers among the three sole specialized workshops in the country: the Latino factory in Havana —which would take on 8,000 new units— and the plants in Villa Clara and Manzanillo, responsible for 2,000 refurbished ones.
In 2025, the recovery program generated an estimated savings of nearly 20 million dollars, according to data from the Radio Bayamo research dossier.
Independent experts warn, however, that restoring the Cuban electrical system as a whole will require between eight and ten trillion dollars and three to five years of work, a scale that no recycling facility, no matter how efficient, can cover on its own.
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