The Thermoelectric Power Plant «Lidio Ramón Pérez», located in Felton, municipality of Mayarí, Holguín, reported this Wednesday that it is generating only 110 MW for the National Electroenergetic System (SEN), significantly below the 260 MW installed capacity of its unit 1.
The plant itself acknowledged that the cause is the accumulation of dirt in the boiler, a technical problem that reduces heat transfer and diminishes production. Before this limitation, unit 1 had been generating uninterrupted for 84 consecutive days.
The situation is worsening because Unit 2 of Felton remains out of service due to a malfunction, according to the official report from the Union Eléctrica dated October 21. This leaves the plant operating at a minimal fraction of its approximately 510 MW of total installed capacity.
Unit 2 has a history of severe deterioration: it suffered a fire during the restart after maintenance in 2022, and the Cuban government acknowledged that its rehabilitation will not be completed before late 2027 or early 2028.
The unit 1 has also not had a stable year. In August, it was taken offline to repair a crack near the boiler dome, with work that included cleaning internal deposits, repairing the reheater, and correcting more than a hundred anomalies detected in Felton. On October 10, it went offline again due to a leak in the boiler, and on October 16 the plant was completely offline, worsening the electrical crisis in the eastern part of the country.
The national electric grid this Wednesday is in a state of extreme precariousness. The Electric Union reported that at 06:00 hours, the availability of the national electric system was 1,017 MW against a demand of 2,300 MW, with 1,292 MW affected since early morning.
For the peak nighttime hours, the outlook is even more grim: a demand of 2,950 MW is expected, with a deficit of 1,933 MW, and a maximum impact forecast of 1,963 MW.
On Tuesday, the situation did not improve. According to the UNE report, "the maximum impact due to generation capacity deficit yesterday was 1,942 MW at 7:50 PM," with sustained interruptions throughout the 24 hours, including all night long.
In addition to Felton, several units from other plants remain out of service: unit 8 of the CTE Mariel, units 1 and 2 of the CTE Santa Cruz, and units 3 and 6 of the CTE Renté are out of order. The limitations in thermal generation total 518 MW.
In this context, the reconnection of the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant to the SEN at 04:36 this Wednesday represents a partial relief, although the Matanzas plant has experienced at least 17 unplanned outages so far in 2026, including a connection that lasted only five minutes the night before.
Photovoltaic solar energy contributed 3,752 MWh on Tuesday, with a peak power of 591 MW at noon. However, this generation does not meet the peak nighttime demand, which is when blackouts hit Cubans the hardest.
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