The Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric power plant, the largest electricity generation plant in Cuba, went offline from the National Electroenergetic System (SEN) again at 11:05 PM on Sunday, just hours after having been reconnected, according to reporter José Miguel Solís, citing the Electric Union (UNE).
The cause of this new service outage at La Guiteras is a leak in the front wall of the burners.
The plant, located in Matanzas, had managed to synchronize with the SEN on Sunday the 27th with only 150 MW, with its technicians "stabilizing parameters," according to the facility's own publication on Facebook. The reconnection lasted less than a day.
This reintegration came after weeks of repairs following the eighth nationwide blackout of the SEN, which occurred on September 18 and caused further damage to the economizer of the plant's boiler. The general director of the Yumurino block, Román Pérez Castañeda, described these issues as "punctures at several points of the steam generator."
The cooling process of the boiler took nearly 72 hours before the brigades could intervene, and on September 23, an additional leak was detected during a hydraulic test that further extended the repair.
The statement from the UNE published this Monday confirms that the Guiteras is out of service, along with unit three of the CTE Cienfuegos, unit two of the CTE Felton, and unit six of the CTE Renté. Three other units remain under scheduled maintenance.
The energy situation this Monday is critical: at 6:00 AM, the availability of the SEN was 1,045 MW against a demand of 2,647 MW, with 1,599 MW affected. The limitations in thermal generation amount to 362 MW.
On Sunday, the maximum impact reached 1,953 MW at 9:00 PM, with outages that extended throughout the 24 hours, including all night long. The only partial relief came from the photovoltaic solar parks, which contributed 4,327 MWh with a peak power of 673 MW at noon.
La Guiteras accumulated in 2026 at least 17 unplanned outages, with the economizer of its boiler —which has been in continuous operation for 38 years and has not undergone major maintenance since 2010— being the most frequent cause of its failures. In July, the plant managed to stay connected to the system for only 26 minutes before experiencing a malfunction again.
For the peak hours this Monday, the UNE forecasts a capacity of 1,160 MW against a maximum demand of 3,130 MW, resulting in a deficit of 1,970 MW. According to the official report: "if the predicted conditions persist, a shortfall of 2,000 MW is anticipated during this time," which foreshadows another day of prolonged blackouts for millions of Cubans.
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