The Antonio Guiteras Thermoelectric Power Plant, the largest electricity generation facility in Cuba, will remain offline from the National Electric System (SEN) for at least 48 hours, and its restart could take place on Friday, October 2, according to technical sources from the facility who confirmed this to Cuban official media.
The breakdown: six defects in the reheater
The cause of the new shutdown is a malfunction in the high-temperature reheater (RAT) of the boiler, where technicians identified six defects that require a complex intervention.
According to the Cuban News Agency (ACN), Román Pérez Castañeda, the plant's general director, specified that the work involves cutting and replacing damaged pipes, welding, metallographic inspection, and a final hydraulic test before attempting to restart.
“They are currently working on cutting and replacing the damaged pipes in this area, which is the precursor to the welding work and the usual control tests that precede the commencement of the startup, which could happen at some point next Friday,” stated Pérez Castañeda to ACN.
A positive sign: the economizer shows no leaks
The engineer Elmer García Romero, technical deputy director of the block, provided information that the authorities present as encouraging.
According to Radio 26, García Romero confirmed that “a hydraulic test was conducted and no leaks were detected in the water walls or in the economizer, which was the focus of the recent intervention”.
This means that the economizer—the component that has caused the most breakdowns at the plant during 2026—shows no new damage, which could simplify the ongoing repair.
The work involves brigades from the Electric Power Plant Maintenance Company based in Matanzas, alongside workers from Guiteras itself.
How the plant ended up with this new breakdown
La Guiteras returned to the SEN at 11:05 PM on Sunday, just a few hours after reconnecting with only 150 MW, while its technicians were working to stabilize parameters.
The immediate cause was a leak in the front wall of the burners, and it was during the subsequent inspection that the fault in the RAT was detected.
This reconnection was, in turn, the result of weeks of repairs accumulated following the eighth general blackout of the SEN, which occurred on September 18, causing further damage to the economizer—described by Pérez Castañeda as "punctures at several points of the steam generator."
The cooling of the boiler took almost 72 hours, and on September 23, an additional leak further extended the work.
The chronic deterioration of the thermoelectric plant
The Antonio Guiteras Thermoelectric Plant was inaugurated in 1988 and has not received major maintenance since 2010.
So far in 2026, it has accumulated at least 17 unscheduled outages, including an incident in July when it was connected for just 26 minutes before going offline again.
A more extensive repair would require a shutdown of about 180 days to replace around 500 tubes and execute between 1,000 and 1,200 weld seams, according to the director of the Electric Union explained in June.
The authorities themselves have acknowledged that this intervention is not feasible under the current economic conditions.
The impact on the national electrical system
The departure of the Guiteras directly exacerbates the electricity crisis that the Cuban population is experiencing.
On Tuesday, September 29, the availability of the SEN was only 1,060 MW compared to a recorded demand of 2,461 MW, with a forecasted deficit of 1,990 MW for peak hours.
On that September 29, other units were also out of service: unit 3 of the CTE Cienfuegos, unit 2 of the CTE Felton, and unit 6 of the CTE Renté, further reducing the available margin to meet demand while the system awaited the results of the final tests on the RAT.
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