They say that misfortunes never come alone: the Lidio Ramón Pérez Thermal Power Plant, known as Felton, located in the municipality of Mayarí, Holguín, went offline this Friday, during a particularly critical day for the National Electroenergetic System (SEN), which was already facing a significant generation deficit and the consequences of a fire at the Santa Cruz del Norte power plant.
The Electric Union (UNE) announced at 11:31 a.m. this Friday that the Felton thermoelectric plant was offline, through a brief message posted on Facebook: “Offline: CTE Lidio Ramón Pérez de Felton.”
The state-owned company did not explain the reasons for the disconnection, did not identify the affected unit, nor specified when generation could be restored at the facility.
The announcement is particularly concerning because, in its official morning report, UNE had already stated that unit 2 of Felton was out of service due to a malfunction.
The situation arises when the Cuban electrical system has a generation capacity that is significantly lower than national demand, with blackouts lasting much of the day in numerous localities.
Hours earlier, in its report for this Friday, the UNE had reported that at 6:00 a.m. the availability of the SEN was only 740 megawatts (MW), compared to a demand of 2,260 MW, with a deficiency of 1,540 MW due to capacity issues.
For peak demand hours, the company forecasted an availability of 740 MW against an estimated consumption of 2,900 MW, which represented a deficit of 2,160 MW and a predicted impact of 2,190 MW.
These forecasts were published before the announcement at 11:31 a.m. regarding Felton. Therefore, they do not represent an updated assessment of the impact of that disconnection.
The morning report reflected a situation with numerous thermoelectric units out of service. In addition to unit 2 of Felton, units 1 and 2 of Santa Cruz del Norte, the Antonio Guiteras plant in Matanzas, and units 3 and 6 of Renté in Santiago de Cuba were also listed as malfunctioning.
Unit 3 of Santa Cruz, Unit 5 of Nuevitas, and Unit 5 of Renté were also under maintenance.
The limitations in thermal generation amounted to 394 MW, according to official information.
Additionally, the UNE acknowledged the day before that the electrical service was affected for 24 hours. The highest impact due to capacity deficit reached 2,094 MW at 7:30 p.m., a figure higher than expected due to limitations in units 3 and 4 of the Cienfuegos thermoelectric power plant and in unit 2 of Santa Cruz.
The production of photovoltaic solar parks during that day was 3,738 megawatt hours (MWh), with a maximum output of 581 MW achieved during daylight hours.
However, solar energy is not available during the night when electricity demand remains high, and the system relies on other sources of generation.
"And why do misfortunes always come in pairs?"
The new incident in Felton occurs just hours after a large-scale fire affected unit 1 of the Ernesto Guevara de la Serna thermoelectric plant in Santa Cruz del Norte, Mayabeque.
According to the UNE report, the incident occurred around 6:55 a.m. and required firefighters to intervene to control the flames.
Subsequently, the authorities confirmed that the fire had been extinguished without any injuries, and images of the facility after the emergency were released.
According to information released by state media, the fire originated from an oil leak in the front of the rotor of unit 1, which was detected by the operator on duty.
Although the flames have been extinguished, the final extent of the material damage and the date for the affected unit's return to service have not been reported.
To this unfortunate equation, it must also be added that the Antonio Guiteras Thermoelectric Plant, the largest power generation facility in Cuba, went out of service this Wednesday due to a leak in the economizer (ECO).
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