The Unit 3 of the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes Thermal Power Plant, located in Cienfuegos, was taken offline this Saturday due to the tripping of the air compressor switch, according to the Electric Union on its official Facebook account.
The failure comes at one of the worst times for the National Electroenergy System (SEN), which woke up this Saturday with a mere 1,000 MW available against a demand of 2,890 MW, leaving 1,915 MW uncovered from the early hours of the morning.
The report from the Electric Union warns that the situation will worsen during the peak demand hours at night: a capacity of 1,000 MW is projected against a demand of 3,250 MW, resulting in a deficit of 2,250 MW and an estimated impact of 2,280 MW in Cienfuegos and the rest of the country.
On Friday, the electric service was interrupted for 24 hours, including the entire night. The highest recorded impact was 2,272 MW at 9:00 PM, according to the official report.
In addition to Unit 3 in Cienfuegos, the SEN is experiencing multiple non-operational units this Saturday: Units 5 and 6 of the Mariel CTE, Unit 2 of the Santa Cruz CTE, Unit 4 of the Cienfuegos CTE, Unit 2 of the Felton CTE, and Unit 6 of the Rente CTE are all out of service.
The following units are under maintenance: unit 3 of the CTE Santa Cruz, unit 5 of the CTE Nuevitas, and unit 5 of the CTE Renté. The limitations in thermal generation total 402 MW.
The Cienfuegos plant, inaugurated between 1978 and 1979 with Hitachi Japanese technology, has two units of 158 MW each for a total capacity of 316 MW and contributes about 14% of the national thermal generation.
Your Unit 3 has a history of instability. Unit 4 of the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes left the SEN in early July due to a malfunction in the voltage regulator of the generator. The new outage this Saturday marks another link in that chain of recurring failures.
The national context is equally critical. Cuba has experienced at least six total collapses of the national power grid so far in 2026, with sustained structural deficits exceeding 2,000 MW.
On September 1st, the first day of the school year, power outages were affecting 70% of the country simultaneously.
In August, the Unión Eléctrica itself warned that the period between September and December could be particularly severe due to the coincidence of maintenance and breakdowns in multiple thermal power units. The new breakdown in Cienfuegos confirms that this forecast is already a reality.
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