The Antonio Guiteras Thermoelectric Power Plant, the largest electricity generation facility in Cuba, will remain offline from the National Electroenergy System (SEN) for approximately four days after experiencing insufficient vacuum in the condenser of its boiler, explained the technical deputy director of the unit, engineer Elmer García Romero, in information shared this Wednesday on social media by journalist José Miguel Solís.
The failure caused the unit to shut down and the immediate start of the cooling process. García Romero warned that the loss of vacuum is especially dangerous because it can compromise the integrity of the turbine, which is why the Unión Eléctrica (UNE) decided to halt the plant.
"A detailed inspection of the boiler is required; we suspect a malfunction of the high-temperature reheater, which, by the way, is the component that shows the most wear," noted the specialist.
The technician specified that the duration of the outage will depend on the actual extent of the damage, which has not yet been determined. "The estimate to repair the breakdown is around four days, depending on the magnitude of the damage, and maintenance crews from the power plant company will be involved," he explained.
This is the fifth breakdown that the Guiteras has experienced just in October 2026. The plant went offline from the SEN again on Tuesday due to low vacuum in the condenser, after also being taken offline due to vibrations in the turbine on October 24, a fault hours after synchronizing on October 20, a leak in the economizer on October 14, and a discharge in the steam tempering line on October 9.
La Guiteras operates with a single generating unit of 316 MW nominal capacity, which means that any failure results in a complete loss of its contribution to the SEN. The plant was inaugurated in 1988 and has not received capital maintenance since 2010, accumulating over 38 years of operation. By July 2026, it had already recorded at least 17 unplanned outages that year.
A comprehensive repair of the facility would require replacing over 500 pipes, executing between 1,000 and 1,200 welding seams, and keeping the unit shut down for at least 180 days, as acknowledged by executives from UNE itself.
The new shutdown worsens an electrical crisis that was already extreme before this breakdown. The UNE report from Tuesday recorded at 06:00 only 850 MW available against a demand of 2,250 MW. For peak hours, a deficit of 1,960 MW was predicted, with an estimated impact of 1,990 MW, equivalent to almost 69% of uncovered demand.
In addition to the Guiteras, the following units remain out of service: unit five of the CTE Mariel, unit one of the CTE Santa Cruz, unit two of the CTE Felton, and unit three of the CTE Renté, with thermal limitations totaling 482 MW.
The impact is spreading throughout the country. In Villa Clara, the Provincial Dispatch of Cargo reported a critical situation regarding generation availability that forced the interruption of circuit 152 on the four kV line. “At this moment, only the 13 kV circuits in the municipal head are operational, secured to ensure the functioning of the hospital and other vital services,” the agency stated.
Thousands of families are accumulating days without electricity, suffering food loss and serious daily difficulties, in a situation that shows no signs of improvement while the Guiteras remains out of service and under evaluation.
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