The Antonio Guiteras Thermal Power Plant, the largest power generation facility in Cuba, will remain off the National Electric System (SEN) for at least 48 hours, with its restart expected to occur on Friday, October 2, according to technical sources from the facility who confirmed this to Cuban official media.
The breakdown: six defects in the heater
The reason for the new stoppage 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 general director of the plant, specified that the work involves cutting and replacing damaged pipes, welding, metallographic testing, 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 a precursor to the welding work and the usual control tests that precede the start-up, which could take place at some point next Friday,” Pérez Castañeda stated 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 are presenting 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, the element that was the focus of the recent intervention”.
This means that the economizer—the component that has caused the most failures in the plant during 2026—shows no new damages, which could simplify the ongoing repair.
Work teams consist of brigades from the Electric Power Plants Maintenance Company based in Matanzas, along with workers from Guiteras itself.
How did the plant end up with this new breakdown?
La Guiteras went offline again from the SEN at 11:05 PM on Sunday, just a few hours after being reconnected with only 150 MW, as its technicians worked to stabilize the parameters.
The immediate cause was a leak in the front wall of the burners, and it was during the subsequent inspection that the failure in the RAT was detected.
That reconnection was, in turn, the result of weeks of repairs accumulated after the eighth nationwide blackout of the SEN, which occurred on September 18, causing new 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 unplanned outages, including an episode in July where it remained connected for only 26 minutes before going offline again.
A more extensive repair would require a shutdown of about 180 days to replace around 500 pipes and execute between 1,000 and 1,200 weld seams, as explained by the director of the Electric Union 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 electrical crisis affecting the Cuban population.
On Tuesday, September 29, the availability of the SEN was only 1,060 MW against a recorded demand of 2,461 MW, with a projected 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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